Progressive Bumper Sticker

I Don’t Just Hug Trees. I Kiss Them Too.

Apologists for a filthy Earth think that they’re being clever when they call environmentalists tree huggers. They believe that they’re making fun of ecologically aware people, but the truth is that the tree huggers term only sounds like an insult to someone who has some serious psychological damage.

What kind of sick mind would prevent someone from loving trees? Trees are one of the most basic, primal objects of adoration for humankind. Trees have been at the heart of human mythology and human subsistence for as long as there have been humans.

So yes, I’m a tree hugger, but I don’t just hug trees. I kiss them too.

Children take special delight in trees. So, Irregular Times offers the following video, featuring, in the middle, a boy climbing a tree and singing about it in delight. Isn’t that the very picture of happiness?

For those who are curious, here’s the very same bumper sticker seen in this video.

Florida, Miami, Obama and the Focused Campaign

Late Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill famously said, “All politics is local.” Oh, if that were true. With the creation and distribution of nationally focused media drowning out local sources of information, all politics in the USA has become national, with people paying more attention to cable TV broadcasts than to what’s going on right around them in their own neighborhoods.

It’s time to take that back, and reclaim the local identity as a relevant force in national politics. That’s one of the reasons the Irregular States catalog was created - to bring items like campaign bumper stickers to people that connect national issues to local identity.

Too many people grab a generic Barack Obama bumper sticker with a message that could apply anywhere. They put it on the back of their cars, and if you didn’t see the car’s license plate, they could be from anywhere.

It’s essential to remember that though the position of President of the United States is national, the election is actually an affair of the states. Unless a constitutional amendment is passed some time in the future, the Electoral College will be the group that actually elects the President - and delegates to the Electoral College will be elected in statewide popular elections.

That makes a statewide focus especially important, and state-level bumper stickers important too. Thus we see that bumper stickers like this one, proclaiming Florida is for Obama, may not be as prevalent as other Barack Obama bumper stickers, but they pack an extra punch.

Let’s take this localization of politics one step further, then. If the state level, Florida for instance, is what establishes the Electoral College vote, then it’s the local neighborhood that actually facilitates the Electoral College vote on Election Day. People don’t all go to one place in Florida to vote, after all. They go to a designated polling station in their city or village.

If you live in Miami, say so. Display a Miami for Obama bumper sticker.

So, support Barack Obama nationally, yes. Support Barack Obama in Florida, sure. But also support Barack Obama in Miami… or in whatever state and town you happen to live in. Focus the lens of progressive activism to affirm where you are in 2008.

A Bumper Sticker For A Time Of Unprecidented Presidential Disapproval

History has just been made. A new poll finds that 71 percent of Americans disapprove of the way that George W. Bush has done his job as President of the United States. That’s record-breaking. CNN quotes its polling director as saying,

“No president has ever had a higher disapproval rating in any CNN or Gallup Poll; in fact, this is the first time that any president’s disapproval rating has cracked the 70 percent mark.”

Even Richard Nixon didn’t have this many people disapprove of him. Not even on the day he resigned.

Resignation. That’s a good word for what’s going on in America - and for what should go on instead.

Under George W. Bush, Americans have become resigned to a failed government and to international embarrassment.

What should have happened instead? Instead of the American people becoming resigned, George W. Bush should have resigned. Even Tricky Dick Nixon had the decency to resign. Even President Nixon had more integrity than President Bush.

So, we think the bumper sticker you see makes a pretty good one to mark the final year of the presidency of George W. Bush: At least Nixon resigned.