talk about road rage!

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Never having read Harry Potter, and not associating myself with any political party in particular, could someone please explain the insult here?

Not very familiar with Harry Potter, but I'm guessing Voldemort is a villain in the stories, so therefore the sentiment must be Republicans support villains. Like W.

Or something like that.

[Gurndigarn]

Never having read Harry Potter, and not associating myself with any political party in particular, could someone please explain the insult here?

Just pretend it said "Republicans for Hitler". Only Hitler was a fictional character.

[Auto]

Well, if you gratuitously insult people, it's going to cause people to be upset. And while the sticker is funny, it is insulting, too.

Wait a minute.

Just because someone disagrees with my politics doesn't mean I insulted him.

Political speech is the highest form of free speech and if some rightwing wacko is at risk for a coronary everytime he reads a bumper sticker he dislikes, that's his problem, not mine. I'm not going to censor myself just so he feels better and doesn't crash his car. And I don't expect anyone to censor their opinions because I might happen to diagree.

Political opinions may be reprehensible (or not) but no one is insulting anyone else by voicing them.

Corvette dude needs to grow up.

[Geek King]

Quite right. I might disagree with the bumper sticker, and possible have vehament arguments with Auto about his politics, but I will defend his right to say so and think that way. Being insulting is not a crime.

Irritating, but not a crime.

[LizaMarie]

here's the origin of the sticker http://www.goats.com/archive/030808.html for those of you who were curious. It's from 2003, so originally it was making fun of Arnold running (and winning!) the CA governor's race, but I do find it funny as a stand alone joke. It's also sort of insulting, anyone who has read HP will find that Voldemort and his followers were definately reminiscent of Hitler. I don't know if I would call it gratuitously insulting, but the point I was trying to make is that fanatics, of any type, who are driven to things like 80 mph screaming matches are what makes the world a very scary place at times.

[digilight]

I'm a republican, I like Harry Potter, and I find that bumper sticker pretty farking funny actually. To read about people actually damaging people's vehicle's over the political sticker of choice is shocking to me. As much as I support my parties candidate I would never in my life imagine doing that.

I must admit though my favorite sticker says this
"To close for missiles, Switching to guns". I always laugh when I see one of those in heavy traffic for some reason.

[Gurndigarn]

Wait a minute.

Just because someone disagrees with my politics doesn't mean I insulted him.

Well, that depends on how you expressed your political opinions. It's possible to express your political opinion without insulting people who disagree with you, and it's possible to express your political opinion with (or by) insulting your targets.

"Republicans for Voldemort" implies that the republican party would support someone like Voldemort. So yes, I would consider that an insult to a republican.

Political speech is the highest form of free speech and if some rightwing wacko is at risk for a coronary everytime he reads a bumper sticker he dislikes, that's his problem, not mine.

True. Same with leftwing wackos, religious wackos, atheist wackos, and so forth.

I'm not going to censor myself just so he feels better and doesn't crash his car.

I'm not asking you to. The tone of the original post, at least how I read it, was "and we were sort of surprised that this guy was upset. Our best guess is...." So I responded to that portion of their message. That doesn't mean that I think you should censor yourself (though I find many people screw up their message with a poor delivery (see below)), or that I was sympathising with the idiot trying to express a counter-opinion at 80 MPH.

----

(Warning: )

I think my original post also came about by a general irritation with the political process as it has become. In far too many cases politics is being played like a zero-sum game. IE, the belief is that if your side goes down, then our side naturally goes up. It leads to a lot of mudslinging and ad hominem attacks. It also isn't true. The zero-sum game is rarely productive, and it usually leads to counter-mudslinging rather than anything constructive rather than getting anything done. As near as I can tell, more time is spent on our congressional floors attacking opposing viewpoints and preening for the fan base than trying to find the valid parts within everyone's viewpoints and actually getting something done. Which I find to be a sad waste of the votes that put these people in office.

In the campaigning process, I would rather hear why I should vote for you than why your opponent is a jerk. I'm intelligent. I can figure out why your opponent is a jerk much faster than you can convince me. I want to know why I should vote for you or your position, rather than why I should vote against your opponent, or disagree with their position. Most negative campaigning, be it on a bumper, a shirt, or in a speach, is only preaching to the choir. And in the process, irritating the heathens, so to speak, rather than going out and trying to convert them.

At least, that's my opinion. Unfortunately, mudslinging seems to work, so I'm not expecting it to vanish any time soon.

[Rahmota]

Getting so bent about a bumper sticker, insulting or not, that you either vandalize the car or that you play with your and everyone else's lives is just insane.

I find that bumper sticker funny, even if it is not exactly flattering. Of course one I wanted to get but never got around to for the last election was Vote Cthulu why settle for the lesser Evil!

[Kogarashi]

As near as I can tell, more time is spent on our congressional floors attacking opposing viewpoints and preening for the fan base than trying to find the valid parts within everyone's viewpoints and actually getting something done. I would rather hear why I should vote for you than why your opponent is a jerk.

Hear hear! I'm tired of political campaigns that seem to consist entirely of statements of, "Vote for me because I'm not him!" That doesn't tell me how they'd be as President/Congressman/Other Political Figure.

Vote Cthulu why settle for the lesser Evil!

I like that sticker because it's funny while not directly attacking a specific party. Everybody wins! (Well, until Cthulu eats us all. You win some, you lose some.)

[justZu]

My old college campus is very liberal and the day after the election in '04, several cars had been vandalized by these liberal students who ripped off the stickers off the minority republican population.

So much for their belief in freedom of speech, huh?

[zzapp the witch]

It all boils down to maturity. Corvette tipped his hand on where his current level is....

[CancelMyService]

So much for their belief in freedom of speech, huh?

While stuff like defacing bumper stickers certainly happens, it must be pointed out that a lot of the kind of stuff that makes the editorial pages is usually exaggerated. It's kind of like the equivalent of a SC complaining to the manager and making a mountain out of a molehill. A lot of people travel and end up finding themselves in a town that has opposite political leanings as they do and end up traumatized at the concept that sometimes other people have different opinions.

[Antisocial_Worker]

While stuff like defacing bumper stickers certainly happens, it must be pointed out that a lot of the kind of stuff that makes the editorial pages is usually exaggerated. It's kind of like the equivalent of a SC complaining to the manager and making a mountain out of a molehill. A lot of people travel and end up finding themselves in a town that has opposite political leanings as they do and end up traumatized at the concept that sometimes other people have different opinions.

That is very true on all counts. The editorial pages of my local paper are an incredible source for amusement during tourist season. There will always be at least one or two letters from people whose cars were vandalized because they were sporting conservative bumper stickers, and there are always the letters from people visiting from conservative regions who say they will never return because they saw two men holding hands downtown or something. My personal favorite was a letter from a couple in South Carolina who said they'd never, ever come back to Asheville after seeing all the "non-Christians" (their word) downtown.

Perhaps they're exaggerating. Perhaps not. The vandalism does happen, but to such a degree? We all know how SC's or ST's (Sucky Tourists) have a propensity for stretching the truth, or pulling nonsense out of thin air if need be.

[Auto]

Well, that depends on how you expressed your political opinions. It's possible to express your political opinion without insulting people who disagree with you, and it's possible to express your political opinion with (or by) insulting your targets.

"Republicans for Voldemort" implies that the republican party would support someone like Voldemort. So yes, I would consider that an insult to a republican.

Well, yes, that's true. But in a trivial sense.

Political speech is by definition partisan. Meaning my opponents almost never like what I say about them. But if that's insulting them, then it's the sort of insult we have to tolerate as the price for allowing free speech.

Otherwise we have the "heckler's veto" situation, where if someone objects to what I'm saying, for whatever reason, then I have to shut up or censor myself.

And in America, we don't give hecklers veto power.

Mr. Corvette just needs to suck it up and chill out. If he doesn't like my bumper sticker, he's free to find one attacking mine and telling the world what he thinks of me and people like me. I'm a big boy. I can handle his insulting my most cherished political beliefs.

[Can I Help Your A$$?]

I'm voting republican for the first time in my life (NEVER thought I would) (Ron Paul '08! Yaya!), and I LOVE that sticker. Almost bought one myself.