I try to be a good citizen. I know it sounds a bit quaint, but I do. Maybe it's because I won a good citizenship award in 7th grade and was determined to live up to the task.
Part of being a good citizen is courtesy. I've always tried to be courteous, even as a driver. But I noticed something about myself shortly after the Chimpanzee-in-Chief invaded a sovereign nation in March of 2003; a nation that had done the U.S. no harm. I became acutely aware that a goodly number of cars were still sporting "Bush-Cheney" bumper stickers from the 2000 election. The election that Sandra Day O'C and 4 other activist judges served up to Bush and Cheney on a silver platter.
Then, a year and a half later, it happened.....
When John Kerry lost the 2004 presidential election I was disappointed beyond words. Disappointed that the majority of the voters in my country wanted this walking, talking disaster named George Bush back in charge. Then I noticed it again. The bumper stickers were still there. "W'04" "Bush-Cheney". I kept getting madder and madder. I would speed up and drive by cars that still carried Bush bumper stickers just to get a look at the driver. What manner of person would still have such a horrible reminder on their vehicle? I wanted to shout at them "You voted for him and it was a mistake. A big one. Admit it and take the sticker off of your car."
Then, Katrina. Awful. Unthinkable. The deaths. The realization that help was not coming because the MFIC was eating birthday cake, playing air guitar and didn't give a damn. Surely to God the stickers would be peeled off. They weren't.
As 2005 turned into 2006, those Bush bumper stickers became a 'thing' with me. I couldn't believe the rage I felt when I'd see a car that still had a Bush sticker on its bumper or backglass. Short of road rage, mind you, but seeing a Bush sticker on a car engendered a wide range of feelings in me, none of them good.
It was with pride that I put an Obama sticker on my car last year, where it remains to this day. And that's the point of the diary. When should I take it off? Whether to take it off or leave it on and "rub it in". What to do. Is leaving my Obama sticker on the car being smug? If so, is that okay or should I be 'bigger' than that?
What should a kossack do (WWKD?), you know, as a good citizen: