HoodaThunk?

It was several months past the 2000 elections that I first recall noticing something I hadn’t seen in years past: a campaign bumper sticker on the car ahead of me in traffic. Now, some of those older stickers were pure hell to remove from a bumper and you could tell from the scratched-up appearance of them that the owners of the car had made a shot at getting rid of them. But this one was different. It was clear that no such attempt had been made.

Once noticed, it became impossible not to see them whenever they appeared and I was curious that I was seeing them in far greater numbers than before. There were some for Bush/Cheney here and there but it was the Gore/Liberman stickers that appeared most often. At first I simply dismissed it as evidence of a forgetful car owner. Then along came the 2004 campaign and the Gore/Liberman stickers disappeared virtually overnight, replaced by Kerry/Edwards stickers. I put a Bush/Cheney sticker on my car, too, and a sign in my yard as I recall. The day after the election, both items went into the trash, their task complete. Again, the incidence of stickers left on other cars continued to wane in the following days but they were still there.

It was a year later than I was still seeing Kerry/Edwards stickers but this time I was also paying attention to what the owners of those cars were saying when I was in earshot and to what else was on their bumpers. There were the “Don’t blame me, I voted for Kerry” stickers, ones that said “01/20/09″ referencing the date when Bush would leave office, and – most irritatingly – the ones that said “He’s not MY President!” It was in late 2005 when I saw a brand-new car, still with the temporary tags on it and less than 30 days old, with a Kerry/Edwards sticker taped to the bumper that the proof became undeniable: the sticker was still a political statement but its purpose now was to display membership in the anti-Bush set. It was a tribal marking. It was a notice to fellow Kerry supporters and a continued shaken fist to those of us who hadn’t supported Kerry. I continued to see these stickers right up through the Democratic convention this past fall. After that, they’ve disappeared, replaced with Obama’s stuff.

As I always do, I took my bumpers stickers off and took the sign down the day after the election. Both went into the trash, their task complete. Obama stickers are, of course, still rampant. You cannot drive in DC for longer than a minute without seeing one. The campaign is over, the President has been elected. The stickers are exactly what the Kerry/Edwards stickers were, albeit with a happier ending for their owners and an unhappier one for those of us who didn’t support Obama’s election. Intended or not, they’re a mocking jeer to those of us who supported the opposition and, in the spirit of the President’s call for Renewal and Reconciliation, I have suggestion and a request.

Lose the stickers.

The campaign is over, you guys won. Take the stickers off the cars. Put them into a scrapbook with pictures and news clippings so you can relive the moment in the years to come. But if you’re looking for a reconciliation and you’re really interested in having your fellow Americans work with you instead of just sullenly opposing every word you utter, how about showing a little of that vaunted compassion and not continue to toss it into our faces? Take the stickers off the cars.

Which brings me to my fellow conservatives and Republicans. Some of you still have McCain/Palin stickers on your cars and I understand completely why you do. Eight years of driving around behind cars with Gore and Kerry stickers on them, visible reminders from their owners that they weren’t one of you, might lead you to feel completely justified to return the favor. Well, it’s not helping and you’re falling into the same kind of tribalism that’s been tossed in front of you these past several years. If you’re truly a supporter of our Constitution then there’s no question Obama is, in fact, your President. The only thing you’re doing with the sticker is keeping this Hatfield and McCoy feud going and there’s no future in that. So please, lose the sticker. Take it off the car. Put it into a scrapbook with printoffs of whatever blog, newspaper or magazine you read so you can show your part in this moment in history. You should do that, in fact, so you can help avoid the characterization in years to come that anyone who didn’t support Obama was just being racist. Do it for whatever reason you like but get the stickers off the cars.

A little civility from both sides is all this would be. It’s an approach to fellow Americans that doesn’t start every conversation with a needling little barb, a personal insult flowing from a feeling of personal justification. It’s a path to getting over the differences and, perhaps, working on the commonalities.

So please, folks. Take the stickers off the cars.