Most of the traditionally democratic bumper stickers and other tags, such as "F" the president, various Peace tags, and Kerry/Edwards are always on like 95 Sentras, Dodge Neons, and Civic Hatchbacks (pre 1990).

This is a personal observation, but I feel that 11 years of driving and viewing thousands (millions) of bumpers while driving and/or sitting in traffic would lead me to that conclusion.

So what's the point? Democrats/liberals drive shit cars? Pretty much.

Democrats/liberals have little wealth therefore support redistribution of wealth from the haves.

Republicans/conservatives have wealth and don't want to give up what they've earned.

Thoughts?

btw - I am a social liberal and a fiscal conservative, so feel free to attack my views and/or observations.

9/12/2006 10:36:32 PM

You haven't met enough rich people, yet.

9/12/2006 10:37:15 PM

maybe they just waste less

9/12/2006 10:38:34 PM

I drive a ford ranger with band stickers and shit.

9/12/2006 10:41:58 PM

I've noticed that people with those "W The President" stickers are usually crappy drivers. I guess their blindness encompasses all aspects of their lives.

9/12/2006 10:45:59 PM

I should put a "W the Idiot" sticker on my Rover, I'll be sure to get some strange looks

9/12/2006 10:48:13 PM

Quote :

"Democrats/liberals drive shit cars? Pretty much."

Quote :

"Democrats/liberals have little wealth therefore support redistribution of wealth from the haves. Republicans/conservatives have wealth and don't want to give up what they've earned."

Quote :

"Thoughts?"

You're a dumbass.



[Edited on September 12, 2006 at 10:50 PM. Reason : ]

9/12/2006 10:49:05 PM

good thing confirmation bias is just a myth.

9/12/2006 10:52:53 PM

LOCK

9/12/2006 10:54:56 PM

is this why you're a fiscal conservative?

9/12/2006 10:56:37 PM

Just calling it as I see it, and just because you drive a shitty car doesn't mean you are "saving" anything. Most of them are the ones with the loud exhaust, and the shitty emissions. All I'm saying is that you don't see many nice cars (that have current inspections and state of the art emissions) littered with liberal bumper stickers. Is this a correlation or is this just a 10 year coincidence?

[Edited on September 12, 2006 at 11:02 PM. Reason : x]

9/12/2006 11:01:25 PM

hey i'm from pinehurst too

[Edited on September 12, 2006 at 11:09 PM. Reason : ]

9/12/2006 11:07:45 PM

People with shitty cars don't worry about covering them with bumperstickers.

9/12/2006 11:08:53 PM

No correlation beyond your own misconceptions.

I read a study somewhere, probably could never find it again, but it turns out that lower-middle class individuals (rich enough to own shit cars and avoid public assistance) are more likely to vote conservative (on either Religious of Law-and-Order grounds).
Ridiculously wealthy individuals tended to vote liberal.

What I can look up from a book titled Cowboy Capitalism quoted a poll given to both Americans and Europeans. In Europe the lower class individuals tended to believe they would stay low income earners in the future and the upper class individuals tended to believe they would stay high income earners. Meanwhile, in America, low income respondents reported confidence that their lot would improve with time where-as the rich felt fearful of losing their position.

These results were peculiar, of course, because the actual rate of income mobility is similar for both economies so it cannot explain the perceptions of those polled. But these poll results do explain the odd situation of the poor voting conservative and the rich voting liberal, at least once you discern that liberal policies may tend to preserve the current economic order while conservative laze-fare capitalism would leave the current rich at risk without government protection.

This theory, regretfully, does not make as much sense half a decade later. Clinton was perhaps the best defender of the free-enterprise system in American history, meanwhile Bush has been a horrible defender, clearly doing far more harm than good. The question is: has the average voter realized the shift change? Or, has it really changed (would Kerry have been as good a defender as Clinton was)?

9/12/2006 11:10:30 PM

^^ prolly the #1 reason.. problem solved... /thread..

[Edited on September 12, 2006 at 11:11 PM. Reason : ^^]

9/12/2006 11:11:00 PM

NOT Sure but i've never had a sticker on any of my cars. here's what i've owned so far:


Mitsubishi Diamante

Range Rover

Mercedes-Benz

Bentley GT (wouldn't dare put anything on it) . . .

9/12/2006 11:13:14 PM

I own a space shuttle and I don't put stickers on that either, b.

Except W, The President, G.

9/12/2006 11:17:12 PM

Just reminds me of the old quote, "If you are under thirty and are not a liberal, you have no heart, if you are over thirty and not conservative, you have no brain."

9/12/2006 11:20:35 PM

You forgot the stereotype of confederate flag, Calvin and #3 Earnhardt stickered, 20 year old beat up full size Ford/ Chevy pick ups with W '04 Stickers

9/12/2006 11:32:18 PM

please to not discuss NASCAR, thx

[Edited on September 12, 2006 at 11:34 PM. Reason : it is ghey]

9/12/2006 11:34:26 PM

haha

9/12/2006 11:44:23 PM

Quote :

"This theory, regretfully, does not make as much sense half a decade later. Clinton was perhaps the best defender of the free-enterprise system in American history, meanwhile Bush has been a horrible defender, clearly doing far more harm than good. The question is: has the average voter realized the shift change? Or, has it really changed (would Kerry have been as good a defender as Clinton was)?"

Que?
I mean, I know corporate profits aren't everything and all, but it seems like the free-enterprise system has been doing excellent over the past 5 years. What specifically are you talking about?

9/13/2006 7:20:58 AM

For just one example, he signed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 which dramatically increased the accounting requirements of doing business, thus dramatically decreasing the competitiveness of smaller enterprises. You see, supra-large corporations have a competitive advantage when it comes to nativating legal and congressional hurdles and by increasing these hurdles that advantage is increased further.

The proof of this result is that even though the economy is booming the number of companies being registered on the nation's various stock exchanges has fallen. By extension, fewer startups means fewer businesses which means less competition which means the existing economic masters become safer and the free enterprise system suffers.

When Enron folded the proper response was to prosecute those you could and then do nothing. Corporations suffer from a principle/agent problem that cannot be solved by anyone but the principle (shareholders). Trying to force fixes upon the problem from Washington was not a good answer and should be repealled, something I guess we must wait for a Democratic President to do.

But like I said, Bush has not been all bad, he did fix some unnecessary barriers contained in the clean air act. He has also somewhat continued a policy of free trade.

9/13/2006 8:31:22 AM

what a bland and unimaginative thread

did you just get out of PS 201 or something?

9/13/2006 9:10:22 AM

Nope, just an observation that I noticed yesterday and it got me thinking about a possible correlation. I bet there is one, although I don't have time to conduct a complete survey and study just now.

9/13/2006 9:16:05 AM

I drive a two year old vehicle and I'm as liberal as they come.

9/13/2006 9:33:21 AM

ill agree that i dont see many bumperstickers on ANY nice cars unless it is some dumb soccer mom with a luxury suv.

9/13/2006 9:35:51 AM

and I'm not going to litter my car with different political stickers.

9/13/2006 9:42:15 AM

Me neither. I just dont feel they add to the car, but I don't feel they subtract that much.

My car is an 11 year old SUV.

9/13/2006 9:48:33 AM

Many, many liberals/democrats I know have far more money than me or my family.

9/13/2006 9:53:18 AM

LoneShark, you may wanna check your premise of

Quote :

"The proof of this result is that even though the economy is booming the number of companies being registered on the nation's various stock exchanges has fallen. "

The reason the number of companies registering for stock exchanges has fallen is not because less businesses have started up due to SOX. The real reason is that less businesses have chosen to go public because of SOX (for exactly the reasons you've said)

While you can construe businesses being public as better for some reason or other, you certainly can't conclude from lower stock exchange sign ups that there are less startups. The incentives for going public have simply been changed.


And I also doubt SOX will be repealed anytime soon even if Democrats took over House + Senate + Presidency. The whole idea of "corporate accountability" which is the thin guise SOX passed under, is not an exclusively conservative viewpoint.

I also think it should be repealed.

[Edited on September 13, 2006 at 9:55 AM. Reason : .]

9/13/2006 9:53:57 AM

During the last presidential campaign, I saw a lot of stickers from both sides on cars of all different types. I do remember noticing that a lot of Subarus and Volvos had Kerry stickers.

9/13/2006 5:32:44 PM

Bad Thread-making v. Political Affiliation - Correlated?

9/13/2006 8:26:46 PM

Quote :

"I've noticed that people with those "W The President" stickers are usually crappy drivers. I guess their blindness encompasses all aspects of their lives. "

no way man

the people with kerry/edwards stickers are the worst drivers

drive through chapel hill some time

where the left lane is the slow lane

9/13/2006 8:33:14 PM

Well, I will say this much. Most of the vehicles I see that have a "W" bumper sticker can't be getting more than 15mpg.

9/14/2006 7:36:53 AM

Quote :

"During the last presidential campaign, I saw a lot of stickers from both sides on cars of all different types. I do remember noticing that a lot of Subarus and Volvos had Kerry stickers."

I noticed the same thing about nice SUVs. I know people are entitled to drive whatever they want and support whomever they want, but I noticed a lot of expensive SUVs like Tahoe(s) getting 12 mpg and sporting "No Blood for Oil" and "John" stickers.

9/14/2006 9:07:34 AM

I know some guy who drives a cherokee and has a "SUV's are Killing Our Planet" sticker.

its a joke of course.

9/14/2006 10:23:35 AM

Quote :

"During the last presidential campaign, I saw a lot of stickers from both sides on cars of all different types. I do remember noticing that a lot of Subarus and Volvos had Kerry stickers."

You have to remember that most Subaru drivers come from cold weather states such as Massachusetts, Vermont, and Minnesota where the ground is white for five months out of the year and thus justifying the extra premium for all-wheel drive. I remember when I was up in Amherst and Northampton, MA, Subaru by far had the largest dealerships, and their models were probably the most common on the street.

These states also happen to be strong Democratic states; Blue states with a capital B. I bet that as these folks moved down to the South, they brought their Subarus with them, and when their Subarus died, out of brand loyalty, they simply bought another Subaru.

I imagine that there's a similar correlation with Volvos.

Quote :

"Democrats/liberals have little wealth therefore support redistribution of wealth from the haves. "

I disagree since Subarus and Volvos tend to be on the more expensive side. Again, I think this has less to do with some sort of grand political design or wealth and more with geographical location.

9/14/2006 10:38:03 AM

I saw a Che Guevera sticker on the back of a VW next to a peace sign.

Durrrrrr.

9/14/2006 2:47:33 PM

The higher the income bracket, the more likely a person is to vote republican. Of course the poor people had Kerry Stickers, they wanted free health care.

9/14/2006 4:28:42 PM

those lazy ass leeches

9/14/2006 4:33:42 PM

for the life of me, ive never understood why bill watterson doesnt sue whoever makes those calvin stickers for copyright infringement.

9/14/2006 4:44:44 PM