Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Can we all agree: Take off the Kerry/Edwards Bumper Stickers already

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I am a big believer that when you lose you take off the bumper stickers.  My McCain Palin bumper stickers were taken off by 11pm on election night, as were my Steven Levy and Arthur Vigeant Stickers.  We lose, I take em off.

Today while driving around South Boston I saw at least four cars with Kerry/Edwards stickers from 2004 still on.  People you just came off a big win, could you at least put on an Obama Sticker. Gloat a little, I’d get it.  But keeping on a sticker from a losing candidate four years ago, come on.  It’s time to take the Kerry/Edwards Stickers off!

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    • The difference is Bush Won in 2004.  Kerry Lost.  I can see keeping your Bush sticker on during the presidency.  As the guy is the President still for two months +.  Kerry was never the president. You guys just had a president elected.  I would have no problem with Obama stickers staying on for four years.  Actually I’d kind of expect it.

      • if you can’t meet them, then you’ll just have to suffer seeing people express their undying love for john kerry. đŸ˜‰

      • before the Kerry ones. 2004 was a disappointment – but I knew I voted for the better man. I also still have a “Don’t blame me I voted for McGovern.” button.

        <

        p>As Bush sunk from 50% approval to about 24%, his disappeared. I am kind of mystified when I see them now.

  2. Can we all agree?

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    p>No.

    <

    p>This has been another edition of simple answers to simple questions.

  3. Well, I think many of us keep stickers on our car to show what our beliefs are.  Hell, I still have a Dean bumper sticker on my car, and have two unused ones for my next two cars.  That’s because, unlike any other candidate who has since run, he represents my beliefs, and what I want out of a politician.  I mean, I could have the following sticker printed up:

    <

    p>”I believe that I have the power to change America, and that the power to do so is in my hands, and is best activated through large numbers of people, not a few big donors.  I am tired of listening to fundamentalist preachers, and I am tired of being divided.  I think we should care for our land and natural resources, and I think that right is more important than might.  I will oppose a needless war no matter how popular, I think that the Democratic Party needs to reach out to rural white voters, I think we should be on the forefront of gay and lesbian rights, and I think education is an important issue that should not be in the hands of Washington bureaucrats.”

    <

    p>But instead, “Dean for America” seems so much shorter.  EaBo, is you want to tell the world that your values are McCain’s values, then by all means keep the sticker on your car.

  4. My McCain bumper sticker, it would say “Don’t blame me, I’m not a democrat”. But seriously, what’s the best way to remove a bumper sticker?  

  5. I occasionally see tattered, peeling Kerry/Edwards bumper stickers too.  To me, they smack of an inability to accept disappointment, and an inability to move forward.  John Kerry has moved on, for heaven’s sake — he’s doing just fine, in fact, better than ever in some ways.  (Edwards, not so much, but that’s a separate topic!)  Democrats should be a resilient, forward-looking bunch; hanging on to ancient bumper stickers of failed candidates to me doesn’t send that message.

      • you can still put on the record and enjoy the songs.  Does anyone go back and listen to John Kerry’s speeches from 2004?  I sure hope not! đŸ˜€

    • “To me, they smack of an inability to accept disappointment, and an inability to move forward.”

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      p>A lot of people are just lazy. LOL

      <

      p>I reluctantly took off my Patrick sticker to make room for my “McCain – Bush’s Third Term” sticker I got from MoveOn. If not, I would have proudly kept the Patrick one on for a while longer.

      <

      p>It took me a few months to remove stickers for a local candidate last year because after a few weeks, it was winter and it’s a bitch to remove stickers in winter, even from back windows. I just wasn’t interested in freezing my fingers off.

      <

      p>I took off my “McCain – Bush’s Third Term” sticker just today while waiting for a parking spot, realizing it was totally and blissfully MOOT now. The Obama sticker however can stay as long as it wants. It’s peeling a bit so it’s likely to have a shorter lifespan than the ones which have been there for years, like “I don’t have a problem with God – It’s his fan club I can’t stand” and “Well-behaved woman rarely make history” (my absolute all time fave, and personal motto). I may get a chance now to remove the “That’s OK, I wasn’t using my civil liberties anyway” sticker though, which would leave me room for something new! Always an exciting event.

      <

      p>The “Renewable Energy IS Homeland Security” will be staying until the day we are off carbon fuels, so about 30 years. đŸ™‚

      <

      p>Yes, I consider my little car an actual driving blog, why do you ask?

  6. I actually had a Kerry one and then got an Obama one – but I didn’t want to remove the Kerry one yet – so to retain symmetry,  as the Kerry one was in the center, I added a “don’t blame me  I voted for Kerry.” I actually got many thumbs up for them, but always thought they were excessive at first. Now, they may just stay.

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    p>It may be that I was very proud of my vote for Kerry. I can see why anyone would want to take off the McCain/Palin stickers – I was astonished that McCain ran the type of campaign he did. As to Palin, I would have wished I had a primary McCain one, if I were a McCain supporter.  

  7. In the immortal words of comedian Dimitri Martin

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    p>”A lot of people don’t like bumper stickers. I don’t mind bumper stickers. To me a bumper sticker is a shortcut. It’s like a little sign that says ‘Hey, let’s never hang out.'”

  8. ….with a “Kerry for SOS” from his office.

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    p>Unfortunately for our junior senator, I suspect a Dick Lugar sticker may cover it up….we shall see.    

  9. I usually remove the bumper stickers as the polls close, or on my way home from a victory (or condolence) party.  My Obama sticker, however, is still on my car and will likely remain until (at least) Inauguration Day.

    •  As much as Laurel would like to see me in jail. They’ll never take me. I’m too much work. Friends and relatives of your democratic state legislature don’t want to actually work.

  10. My experience as a driver has generally been that the people whose advertised politics are closest to mine drive badly. Like scary badly. When I see a friendly bumpersticker, I steer clear.

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    p>One of life’s peculiar paradoxes, I guess.

    <

    p>So I suppose, for my own safety, please, please, no one remove Kerry-Edwards stickers. Identify yourselves, please!

    • I think people should have whatever bumper sticker on their car that they want (although obscene ones may pose a problem legally since the right to free speech is not absolute).   I suspect EaBoClipper is more bothered by the message than the mere existence of Kerry/Edwards bumper sticker.  Maybe there is a little guilt at work… for voting for Bush for a second term. No one likes to be reminded of a bad decision.    

      • that obscene ones are generally protected by the First Amendment.  It doesn’t seem likely that the First amendment will protect you from society though, ranging from the tutting from your elders to it being scratched off by a holier-than-thou, not to mention a police officer who takes offense and finds a fine for some other offense of yours.

      • It’s crazy. Get over the loss.  Don’t harp on it.  Move on.  Didn’t you guys create a whole 527 around that concept.  

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        p>Bumper stickers are for elections. When the election is over, particularly when you lose, you take them off.  It’s just my opinion but one I follow.  

        <

        p>The same thing could be said about Ogonowski stickers from the special election. Take it off.

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        p>If your candidate loses take the sticker off. Put on one that says don’t blame me I voted for xyz. Etc.  Hell even the 1.20.09 stickers that I can’t stand are ok to have on.  But if your candidate loses, take the damn sticker off.

        <

        p>It was not a bad decision to vote for Bush the second time. Kerry would have been much worse IMHO.  Still think that to this day.

        • …it kinda makes me wish I had a car just so I could plaster it with Kerry/Edwards ’04 merchandise. I’d also frequent East Boston more often.

          <

          p>Let it go, Eabo. People like different stuff than you: it’s Ok because this is America. Some people like to put mud flaps with naked ladies on their cars, some people still have those “Baby on Board” suction cup thingys, some people have windshield tint with the brand name of thier car across the span, some people have not particulary well-done eagle/American flag art painted on their trucks or truck windows, and some people have lame-ass bumper stickers – all of which I find various degrees of tacky. In fact, for my personal taste, I don’t ever want a bumper sticker of any type on my car because I just don’t like them.

          <

          p>But I’m sure many of the people with the things listed above find certain ways I express myself to be tacky and lame. Whatever. I mean, I don’t like crazy body piercings and visible tattoos, so I’ll never get them. But that doesn’t mean I drip with resentment every time I see or think about people with body piercings and large, unhide-able tattoos. To each his own. My friend recently ribbed me for calling  Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” “great”. I prodded back half-jokingly, “The song is classic. Anyone who doesn’t think so can **** off.” We laughed and that was that. Try being a little less judgmental about the small stuff sometime and see how much your rage/blood pressure goes down. WHO CARES? it’s not your car and you can’t change it, lol, as stupid and tacky as it may or may not be.

          <

          p>

          God, give us grace to accept with serenity
          the things that cannot be changed,
          Courage to change the things
          which should be changed,
          and the Wisdom to distinguish
          the one from the other.

          ~ Attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr

          <

          p>Deep breaths, Eabo.

          <

          p>—————
          Hey, you know what else is stupid? Mayonnaise. Worst stuff ever. If you can get mayonnaise banned in Massachusetts, I will personally start a grass roots movement to go around and lobby all owners of Kerry/Edwards-clad cars to remove or update their political stickers.

          <

          p>

        • What are Red Sox stickers for then? Will the Red Sox risk losing more games if all the Red Sox stickers disappeared?

          <

          p>Bumper stickers are one of the ways people express their identity. That’s why you still see the occasional Kennedy/Johnson bumper stickers — and we don’t have Nixon to kick around any more.

        • than Bush was. Even just on Iraq did you miss that the Senate passed his call for a summit BY VOICE vote as an amendment to the 2006 defense funding. Did you not notice that the Baker commission pretty much backed many Kerry proposals? Only at the end of his term is Bush putting any real pressure on the Iraqis to work together to solve the political problems – and the REAL pressure is that Obama will be President.

          <

          p>Kerry also had a plank in the 2004 platform that dealt with mortgage abuses – like balloon mortgages. (He had earlier with Sarbanes, Dodd and Schumer sponsored a bill on predatory lending – in 2000, 2002, and 2003 – three successive Congresses. He also, a year ago, wrote legislation with Smith that was in the Senate stimulus package that left the Finance committee. He would not have been able to avoid the financial crisis – the roots were there long before 2004, but these actions would have made it less severe.

          <

          p>I also can’t see Kerry’s staff being afraid to tell him how badly New Orleans was hit – and I can’t see him going off to celebrate McCain’s birthday rather than leading the effort to clean up and get New Orleans moving again.

          <

          p>Bush was a historically AWFUL President – it would have taken only an average President to have been substantially better.

        • It was not a bad decision to vote for Bush the second time. Kerry would have been much worse IMHO.  Still think that to this day.

          <

          p>I suppose we should take that with the same grain of salt as Eabo Clipper’s electoral map in which McCain wins 272-266. Do I detect a desire to avoid looking at indicators or empirical evidence?

  12. right after the election, but with the kind of president Bush has been, keeping it on would have been a good reminder of what could have been.

  14. … Don’t tell me what to do or to think. Mkay? Thanks.  

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    p>  

    Today while driving around South Boston I saw at least four cars with Kerry/Edwards stickers from 2004 still on.  

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    p>Why does something on someone elses car bother you AT ALL…? never mind, so much…  A less charitable person then myself might be tempted to conclude that appearance bother you in a way that is unseemly.   Is there difference between the sticker on the bumper and the color of the car? Both, it seems, are a personal preference of the cars owner…  Which owners, of the four cars you seen whilst driving in Southie are not you.

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    p>Why don’t you, then, demand that people stop driving cars whose color you dislike?

    <

    p>On the specific matter of Kerry/Edwards: I’m not manichean.  I don’t see things in terms of win or lose.  If I did, I probably would have blown my brains out in 2003 when we invaded a country that didn’t need invading. Certainly, I would not have lasted past early 2004 and the revelations that America does, in fact, sanction torture. Some many years of wiretapping, CIA agents as jetsom, and one shredded constitution later I’m buoyed by the sheer victory of America: that WE can still produce fine men like John Kerry and Barack Obama; who’ll wade into the breach, suffering all manner of calumny, lies and vitriol to do the right thing, and still hold heads high.    

    <

    p>If Karl Rove had ever decided to turn his dogs against George W Bush and unleash just half of the slander and meanness he directed at John Kerry at Dubya… well, Dubya’d still be under the bed, sucking his thumb, fetal in despair, wailing for his momma.

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    p>John Kerry, he walks tall this day. That’s why I smile every time I see a Kerry bumper sticker.   Obama, he’s just a younger, hipper, version of John Kerry: character in abundance and not the slightest whiff of panic. Ever.

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    p>Does the reminder of that, somehow, bother you?  You ought to look into that.

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    p>

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