So I see this bumper sticker on this van.....

[cliffordu]

parked at the Safeway:

"A liberal Democrat is a Communist."

And I stopped for a second.....and then flew into a rage. I wanted to stomp the shit out of the owner of the van.

I usually reserve that urge for the most horrid of humans, like child molesters and rapists.



I think my own reaction to the fear engendered by a constant barrage of hate towards the Prez specifically and liberalism in general has something to do with it.

Or maybe there really HAS been a change in this country, maybe we really ARE drawing lines.

Maybe it's just me.

I could give a shit about someone calling ME names, personally. I've been called lots worse and laughed.

But the idea that wanting justice and a level playing field for all of us somehow gets translated into a fear word

like communism.....to stir more hatred and fear is like an assault on the things I hold onto about the greater ideals we hold (but rarely attain.

Fighting words. When did Communist become a fighting word??? It's a charge used by the ignorant. The ignorant who seem spoiling for a fight.

My grandfather, a Liberal democrat and Union organizer from the coal mines of West Virginia would have waited for that individual in the parking lot.

I left and just came home, shaking.

I'd like to say I'm more civilized and genteel than Pappy, but I'm thinking that would mean I've lost something -

A fierce loyalty, maybe, or the refusal to let my values be demonized.

Or maybe I know I'm just getting old, and can't pack that freight anymore.

[Rick Myers]

1. And don't forget...

All us Veterans that use the VA are SOCIALISTS!!!

[cliffordu]

8. Some time back I physically stopped a guy in a parking lot that had THAT

bumper sticker on his truck:

"democrats are socialists"

he got out of his truck and I explained in no uncertain terms that my tour was with the 101'st and was a democrat, and wanted to know if HE thought I was a socialist....

he shouted something and got back in his truck.

I swear I've seen that truck since, sans sticker.

I don't know why that bothers me, cause I DO have very socialist leanings......I guess it's like someone calling your mom a whore.

Even if you think it ain't true, ya gotta stand up.

Lotta fat lips over that one.

[southernyankeebelle]

35. Good for you Cliffordu

I consider myself a social democrat and I was a military brat until my dad retired and I went to work for the military and met my husband and he retired and he too is a social democrat. Am not ashamed for being a democrat all my life.

[Cant trust em]

2. A conservative republican is a fascist.

There are morons out there. That's about all I have to say.

[polichick]

3. You just know that people like that can't be reached - they're not worth spittin' at. nt

[flakey_foont]

4. or make your own bumper sticker

A CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICAN IS AN ASSHOLE

[rhett o rick]

24. That's too redundant. Shorten it to "They're Assholes" and I think everyone would understand. nt

[flakey_foont]

28. roger that

[Posteritatis]

58. A sticker saying that - and nothing else - would make an interesting rorschach test for people.. nt

[proud patriot]

5. I carry typed notes for such occassions

My car was written on in window chalk once
"Bomb Iran".. so I now use window chalk on my car
to say "public option Now etc..

I'd be tempted to write something on the windows of the Van

[cliffordu]

15. I was tempted to supply a biological sample to the front seat.....

but I would imagine the youtube tape taken off the security camera might besmirch my flawless reputation....

:rofl:

[proud patriot]

36. I'm glad you resisted that temptation

:rofl:

[valerief]

6. You shouldn't get angry at people IQs of 75 or less just because they can vote and procreate. nt

[create.peace]

7. as my departed mother would say, "consider the source"nt

[CaliforniaPeggy]

9. And you live in a liberal area, too!

Of course, idiots live everywhere...

My god. That person's values are seriously fucked up.

I'm with you on the outrage...

And...self-preservation is a good idea.

K&R

[cliffordu]

11. You're right about the liberal area - I just don't SEE that shit around

here ( I live near seattle in a small port town...My profile says seattle cause everyone knows where it is...)

The wooden boat festival is this week so we have all kinds of very rich leaches running around loose.

And you're right about self preservation. My last fight ended abruptly when the guy I was fighting literally picked me up and slammed me into a wall three feet away.

Takes a strong man to whoop me, but it shore don't take 'em long.

[Bigmack]

48. PT, huh? Great town. Lotta libs. nt

[cliffordu]

50. Yep -

I love it here.

'Course they don't let us go to the festivals. Little people.

[barbtries]

10. thanks for sharing

just breathe, and relax. it's a damn shame though, what will become of this human race? so much fear and hatred.

[cliffordu]

13. Thanks. I am supposed to be smarter than that.....

massive fail on that account.

[liberalmuse]

12. But you didn't do it, did you?

That's called, 'Impulse Control', and it is one of the main differences between Us and Them. Good for you! :)

I used to get pissed when I saw a pro-W sticker on a car, but the drivers- I'm serious, people with the non-satirical fish plaques and pro-Republican stickers ALL drive like they are on crack or have their heads up their asses- and I end up just laughing because it is so ridiculous driving behind these fuckwits. Truthfully, about 1/4th of American's worlds end at the tip of their noses, and they don't give a shit about the fact that there's maybe 6 billion other people on the planet. They live in their own, small bubble and everyone else be damned.

[Skittles]

16. fuck impulse control

I would have kicked his ass

[cliffordu]

20. Well....

:loveya:

[Dreamer Tatum]

44. You would have beaten someone up for a bumper sticker?

What other expressions of free speech drive you into a felonious rage?

[cliffordu]

45. That's kinda what the op was about.

In my younger years I fought for less.

[proud patriot]

46. Skittles kicks ass verbally

She would have waited and attacked his ass verbally in a lashing
unparalleled by any ...

[Posteritatis]

57. No comment other than the fact that I love the term "felonious rage" (nt)

[treestar]

14. When they make several words synonymous, the language loses it

expressiveness - socialist, liberal, Democrat, Communist and Marxist all mean the same thing to these people - it shows their lack of intelligence. Why have five words to mean the same thing when you could utilize those five different alphabetical sequences to mean five different things?

[cliffordu]

18. That's right.....The fact that each one of those is interchangable with the

others is infuriating all by itself.....


Like the fact that some of them think "National Socialist" is the same as a Chinese Communist......

[treestar]

23. Also "fascist" and "totalitarian"

also completely synonymous with "socialist" and "communist."

[ShortnFiery]

17. These IDIOTS need to make up their minds whether liberals are "Commies" or "Socialists." eom

[TxRider]

25. In their mind there is no difference..

[TxRider]

26. In their mind there is no difference... nt

[lapfog_1]

47. Don't forget Nazis and fascists.

And the really interesting fact is that they couldn't tell you the difference between ALL the 'ists.

[TK421]

19. Really...what stopped you? as you looked at that bumper sticker I would have thought

"Man, one stick of dynamite would do it".- Mark Perry "Over the Edge"

[cliffordu]

I thought about a road flare....

But Safeway here has cameras that cover the parking lot.......

[TK421]

32. Damnit!

:mad:

[uppityperson]

37. They do? Damn. Besides, that'll teach you to shop at Safeway

I quit yrs back when the manager told me I was paranoid when I complained about their card thingy. That was before that firefighter over Seattle side got arrested for arson due to someone using his card/or number/or phone number to buy....lighter fluid in the summer. Don't use it to track purchases my butt. Manager down there is an asshole, imho, so I boycott them.

Yes, we have ignorant narrow minded people, annoys the heck out of me also. I've a "terrorist hunting" sticker suv parked at my work place. blech

[cliffordu]

42. I KNEW you'd spank me for that.

I keep getting picked on at the co-op by the trustafarians.

[uppityperson]

52. Ah, the New Coop. They always ask me "### what?"

No, just ###. Then they look at me like I'm a dinosaur. Rawr.

Hippier-than-thou ists annoy me also. Damn it, I was there first and it is just how I am, not an affectation.

[cliffordu]

53. ###?

wow!

[uppityperson]

54. 3 digit membership number vs one in thousands.

old, crotchety, uppity here.

[cliffordu]

60. I knew...THAT rawks....

I'm 99 sumpin, sumpin...

4 digits....alas.....way after you.,....

[uppityperson]

63. old hippy here. I moved away and managed to get the same # when

I returned, which I was very happy about. Ran into an old friend there a month ago, heard another low # and had to check and see who it was. Boy did he get old in the last 20 yrs. Unlike me.

[cliffordu]

64. You don't look a day older than when we met.

:rofl:

[uppityperson]

68. and it seems like only yesterday!

:toast: (substituting foamy coffee)

[Ahpook]

21. These fucking idiots don't know shit

One minute they are screaming socialist, the next communist and after that probably fascist.

I can guarantee if asked what those terms really mean, their brain would explode. They hear Rush say some stupid shit on his show and parrot it.

Squawk Squawk Squawk

[cliffordu]

22. I wanted to ask whoever it was why Rush won't deny that he's

accused of being a drug addicted pedophile.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

30. Don't forget nazi.

They are asshats.

[redwitch]

31. The ignorant parroting the stupid.

Zactly.

[Swede Atlanta]

27. I know the feeling........

A beat-up van slammed over in front of me a few weeks ago. Mind that there had been signs for 3 miles that traffic going to Highway X needed to be in the right-hand lane. I had to slam on my brakes to avoid hitting the van. I checked my rear view mirror (defensive driving course) to see how the traffic behind me was reacting to my braking so I could swerve to the right if needed to avoid a collision.

As I picked up speed again I noticed all this hateful crap on the van. "God Bless Dick Cheney". "Waterboarding - keeping America safe". "Obama - a big black mistake America" and something else.

I flew into a rage. I got alongside him and just stared at him. I think he knew he had set me off. He looked like he hadn't showered in a month, hair all askew (at least he has some) with a bluetooth shoved in his ear.

I took a few deep breaths and went on my way.

The deep divisions in this country are scary enough I think it may be time to seek refuge abroad.

[Ahpook]

39. I have noticed the same in TN.

I was pumping the liquid gold at four bucks or better. Remember that? :( An old beat up AMC Pacer pulls up with duct tape and plastic as a side window. He hops out and guess who is on the fucking radio in that.... car? Good old Rush

They can't or refuse to put it together? I think their misguided hatred is so extreme, they would live on dirt floors. Doesn't matter as long as brown people are getting slaughtered in the name of the good old US of fucking A?

[izquierdista]

29. My anecdote about "Communists"

I have a travel anecdote that relates to the fear the right-wingers have of Communists coming to take away their guns. Back in January, I was on a driving vacation and stopped on a Saturday night in a small town as it had gotten dark and was starting to snow. In the morning, there was about 4 inches of freshly fallen snow, the clouds had gone and the sun was shining. Perfect weather to get out the guns and see what kinds of animals were out making tracks in the snow. A lot of other people had that thought, and as I continued with my travels, I saw car after car of hunters getting their guns out, preparing to go hunting at their favorite spot. It was clear that guns and hunting were a part of the culture there, enjoyed by vast numbers of people. I must have seen several hundred hunters out that day as I continued south to where the snow had changed over to rain and there weren't any.

Where was this hunter's paradise where every adult male seemed to have a gun? Dzhankoy, in the former Soviet Union.

[southernyankeebelle]

33. Well I live in Tn and I see allot of McCain stickers. I just laugh because

I have an Obama sticker. To me that alone says it all. I love it when I pass someone who has a McCain sticker because I know they can see mine. That is the best revenge.

[lapfog_1]

34. I think that's it possible that there is a war coming

or at least a sort of war.

The battle lines are being drawn now, the party not in power, having tasted what it could do the last time they weren't in power, is doubling down on that strategy. The strategy of blind fear and hate, and total lies. Lies repeated over and over, in the media and by "leaders". They saw what it could do and did do to Clinton, and they think that they can do the same or worse to Obama. Obama has so many more strikes against him, he has that funny sounding name, he is half African and half white. He is not from the south or the west (even if a transplant). All of our elected Presidents in the last 40+ years have been from the South or the West (LBJ, Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Bush*, Clinton, W. Bush*).

So they are whipping up the unwashed masses, embracing the wing nuts and the militias and white supremacists, and the anti-abortion crowd. They are telling them that the threat, which was EXTERNAL in the Bush years, is now an INTERNAL threat. That the elected President isn't really the President. That the infamous THEM (liberals, commies, socialists, fascists, nazis) are out to get them and have been cheating and manipulating the vote to achieve their nefarious goals (ACORN, etc). Their party leaders and the media have adopted their language... It's not an inheritance tax, it's a DEATH tax, we are not Democrats or the Democratic Party, we are Democrat. Obama is a terrorist or pals around with terrorists, he is not born in the United States, is not really even an American, and is not Christian and most especially, HATES WHITE PEOPLE. Health Care Reform is a communist/socialist/fascist plot. And on and on and on.

To the point where the unwashed masses object to a televised address by the President of the United States to their children in public schools on the importance of an education and the part that those children must play to get one.

There is a faux outrage every week, almost every day. Today was the "day of service to the STATE" outrage (it's a PLOT to get your kid into Americorp!) promoted by Rush.

The first shots have already been fired. The gun nut who thought Obama was coming to remove his guns kills 3 police officers, another anti-liberal asshole walks into a church and kills 2 in Tennessee, guy kills an abortion doctor in Wichita, again, in his church.

And this might well be the nature of this "war". More "random" acts of violent extremists against their fellow Americans who just happen to be Democrats and/or liberals. Lone wolves that aren't really lone nor wolves, but assholes listening too much to the hate speech on the radio and in the books. People who are unhinged a little bit, unhappy in their lives, and see this as a grand opportunity to go out in a blaze of "glory". Fred Phelps with a gun. And there are a *lot* of them. Not just a few hundred or even a few thousand, but 10s of thousands. And they are being goaded into action. Every time one of them pulls the trigger, another 10 are more willing to be martyrs for the cause of Rush and Shawn and Glenn... and now the leaders of the Republican party as well. Far from pulling these people back, like McCain did to the woman that stated that Obama was a terrorist, as she had been told (and was looking for confirmation of that belief by a "real" leader, an elected official, a sane person), the current leadership is pushing them forward, leading the charge, like Joe Wilson. Sarah Palin showed the Republican party that they CAN be batshit crazy and raise money doing it. Joe Wilson has reportedly received over $200,000 since he called the President a liar on national TV in the middle of an address to a joint session of Congress.

The dog whistles are getting to be SO loud now, even the cats are responding.

More acts of random violence, to be followed by an assassination attempt on the President.

After that, who knows? Will the African American community react like they did when Rodney King was beat up? Will we join them? And if something was to happen, would that reaction lead to the wanted (by the white supremacists) race war? Or would it even be a race war?

Would the nutters (teabaggers, birthers, 10thers, and the rest) start shooting at anyone with an Obama bumper sticker? And would we start shooting back, especially at those with "Open Season on DemocRATs" bumper stickers?

I don't know. Could it happen? Yeah, I think it could. Right now, all it needs is a spark. I don't want it to, but I think the kindling been gathered and the dry moss spread around the base. And it's the middle of fire season.

[cliffordu]

40. I think you could be right about nearly all of it.

Viva la revolucian!!!!

[Touchdown]

38. I'd like to get a can of red spray paint

and paint a hammer and sicle on the back with the message... "And we have spary paint too!"

... but I'm to chicken to do that.:blush:

[Hepburn]

41. My response:

A conservative Republican is a pervert.

:hi:

[HopeHoops]

43. I keep a large stickie note pad and permanet marker in the car.

Make a little note and attach it near the bumper sticker. "THIS is why education is important" with an arrow.

[tosh]

49. Ooooh....I like that! nt.

[grantcart]

51. Now that is the kind of bat shit crazy I am talking about

[deaniac21]

55. Over reactions always make me feel better too!

[Posteritatis]

56. If you read the post they seemed to make the OP feel worse

"Wait, why did I just react that way?" is an unnerving feeling at times.

[cliffordu]

61. Only because when I was in my 20's that kind of rage put me and

a couple other people in the hospital at various times.

And, I might add, closer to prison than comfortable.

[Posteritatis]

62. I'm generally much milder and meeker than that and have always been...

... But I've had similar reactions where I noticed something making me physically angry as opposed to just mentally irritated. I've felt myself feeling that way not often, but more than I remember in the past; I'm trying to figure out if it's 'just' me, if I've gotten keyed into the polarization that's been going on lately, if the stuff I'm running into is genuinely more offensive, or something else entirely. It's disconcerting to say the least.

[cliffordu]

65. Could be it's beyond political - too many

rats in a cage and they start cannibalizing each other.

Maybe the media is driving us all insane.

[HughBeaumont]

59. Conservatives: When it's obvious you're not into this whole "thinking" thing, invoke . . .

. . . TEH RED MENACE!!!



Conservatives . . . It's Two thousand NINE. NO ONE UNDER 45 CARES ABOUT or HAS ANY EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENT TO 'TEH EVIL EMPIRE' ANYMORE. You make yourself sound like mountansized idiots instead of garden variety. Please stop. For ALL of us, pal. Tell "Where's the Beef" jokes instead, they're just slightly more relevant.

[VPStoltz]

66. Where'd it come from? The shop of antique Republican ideas?

[cliffordu]

67. "latetotheparty.com"

[madeline_con]

69. Carry Obama stickers to cover them up. n/t