You have all seen e-mail “bumper stickers” — those mottos and sayings appended to the end of e-mails, like: “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” Conservatives seem to have a monopoly on this practice.
I have a simple suggestion for liberals who would like to have a little fun with your conservative friends. Try putting your own bumper stickers on the return e-mails. Here are a few of my favorites:
“Taxes are what we pay for civilized society.” — Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes
“All the Property that is necessary to a Man, for the Conservation of the Individual and the Propagation of the Species, is his natural Right, which none can justly deprive him of: But all Property superfluous to such purposes is the Property of the Publick, who, by their Laws, have created it, and who may therefore by other Laws dispose of it, whenever the Welfare of the Publick shall demand such Disposition. ” — Benjamin Franklin
“The government is us: we are the government, you and I.” — Theodore Rooseveldt
If you try this experiment, I predict some serious cognitive dissonance at the beginning. Many conservatives seem to think that, until the New Deal, everyone agreed that government should be small and weak, and that taxes are always to be viewed as an injustice imposed by an overreaching government. Of course, this is nonsense, but don’t blame your friends, they don’t know any better – they watch the Fox News Channel.
Once your friends are forced to confront the fact that the Founding Fathers, and patriots ever since, have had complex and conflicting views about the appropriate role of government, you just might find yourself in an interesting conversation. And all sparked by an e-mail bumper sticker.
If you have any other bumper stickers for liberals, please include them in a Comment and share the wealth.
