Bumper Stickers

Just today, I pulled up behind a car with Obama and Tim Kaine bumper stickers on it and I gave the driver a thumbs up.  I too have an Obama sticker on my car from 2008 and a new Obama-Biden sticker for this year (but no date on it).   But then I began to think how few bumper stickers you see these days.   I know that a lot of people don't want to mess up their bumpers, now that they are no longer made or chrome, and make up an integral design of the vehicle and the stickers are so hard to remove cleanly.    But it also seems that they have just gone out of style.  It is not cool to show your enthusiasm for politicians because by and large Americans are fed up with politics and politicians.  In fact,  it is also not cool to be enthusiastic about anything in the public sphere.

 Now bumper stickers can be useful.  I would hope that one could get a sense of popular support 's for a candidate by seeing how many stickers you see on the roads, but with the dearth of these stickers, you really can't and you wonder what is wrong with you for wearing your own heart on your sleeve.  Furthermore, bumper stickers have been maligned: if  it says something too short and trite, it is said to "make a bad bumper sticker."  It makes you wonder what is a good bumper sticker.

I for one think that bumper stickers are good, that we should be willing to express ourselves and tell the world what we stand for.   We talk so much about freedom of speech and expression but we hide behind a wall of anonymity.  We do not seek self expression but privacy.  This can only lead to a diminution of democracy.People are willing to contribute to campaigns  The Supreme Court says money is speech, but the people who give the most money want to remain anonymous.  Does that make any sense at all?     Let's all put our mouths where our money is and revive the use of bumper sticker.