"Why do liberals, much more than conservatives, feel the need to communicate their politics via bumper stickers?"

I've seen this kind of thing a lot and I have the same response as you. However I've come to realize that what motivates some liberals to slap all these stickers on their cars is simply the mircro version of what motivates many liberals to relentlessly promote their ideology in academia, the news and entertainment media, in documentary films, in activism, etc. And conservatives and libertarians and others who are not on the left don't have that same motivation, thus they are not driven by an internal fire to disseminate their message and voila, the liberals dominate those aspects of our culture that deal with media, ideas, communication, and their ideas become "normal" and "common sense." I don't have any bumper stickers on my car and I've never been interested in spending a lot of time in activism or disseminating political ideas, I just want to be left alone to pursue my dreams. But over the past couple of years I have come to the realization that I am going to have to engage in the same kind of "information tactics" as the left uses if I want my Anglo-American classical liberal ideas to beat the left's ideas. This is a competition of ideas, and if we don't show up then the left wins by default. So as distasteful as this bumper sticker thing is, success for us will ultimately mean that there will be people plastering conservative, libertarian, classical liberal slogans on their cars.

It's unfortunate but true that liberal ideas lend themselves to short slogans, and conservative/libertarian ideas do not. Liberal slogans sound good as long as you don't A) think about them B) subject them to scrutiny C) actualy, Heaven forbid, try them. Conservative ideas sometimes sound counterintuitive in today's ultra-PC, unthinking society, so a slogan just doesn't get the point across, and there's no room on a bumper sticker for a paragraph.

The closer you get to Cambridge, the more you will see of this phenomenon, and no, contrary to Phil's suggestion, we can't possibly win a bumper sticker war with these people. In other words, War Is Not The Answer!

But we can comment on the bumper stickers which are not included on this vehicle and wonder about them. Does the owner of this car not want to Free Tibet? Has he no candidates to promote (even for elections years ago)? Does he/she believe, in fact, that War May Be The Answer? That Bush May Not Have Lied?

If bumper sticker proliferation is the Left's notion of "information tactics", then that's something we can live with, and, indeed, smile at behind our hands as we encounter their cars on the road.

I too have wondered about this. I have a few guesses. As with the bumper stickers, I think certain personality types gravitate to certain positions, i.e. jobs (the media, hollywood & the arts).

Are they attention whores?

Are they unsatisfied with the fact that no matter how much garbage they spew, their vote still only counts exactly one, just like you and me?

Are there really people out there, in such quantities, who are such sheep that they don't have a clue how they are going to vote, but seeing those liberal bumper stickers makes them decide?

Or, since liberals are attention whores and therefore more visible, and thus there is the illusion of them being more numerous than they acually are, or that they tend to hang around each other, that displaying these bumper stickers makes them 'cool' in the eyes of their peirs, which is of course of great concern to them (moreso than what is actually right).

I have no interest in being an 'activist'. I never put bumper stickers on my car, or signs in my yard. These days that will get your tires slashed or invite other forms of vandalism from the 'self proclaimed champions of freedom of speech' left. But my vote counts just as much.

"It's unfortunate but true that liberal ideas lend themselves to short slogans, and conservative/libertarian ideas do not."

"No taxation without representation," "Don't tread on me," "Liberty or death," "Live free or die." The founding generation had a pretty clear understanding of the usefulness of slogans as part of a larger information campaign. Why have those of us who are pro-liberty today lost that understanding?

If you are a business with a product to sell, you have to have a marketing plan.

If you are a political movement with ideas to sell, you have to have a marketing plan.

Slogans are just the most simplistic, trivial aspect of a larger marketing campaign that will include everything from philosophical treatises, documentary films, literary journalism, lectures...basically any media that can communicate ideas. But when you have a rich, thriving marketing campaign, you'll get your message disseminated across the full range of media.

'and no, contrary to Phil's suggestion, we can't possibly win a bumper sticker war with these people.'

I did not suggest we wage a "bumper sticker war". I was merely saying that when pro-liberty people are truly committed to waging a war of ideas that that will manifest itself at the kitsh level as a car covered with bumper stickers. At higher levels it will manifest itself, for example in film, as conservatives and libertarians producing films that out-compete Michael Moore and Al Gore.

Ideas don't disseminate themselves. It's amazing to me that so many conservatives and libertarians don't seem to get this and are so resistant to the idea that we need to passionately market pro-liberty ideas in order for us to succeed against the left.

When i see simeone with stickers like you pictured, i steer clear. A person such as this is not to be reasoned with, and are out to start an argument.

Counter their lameness, and put but one sticker on your car, a beautiful, nice and shiney, lasts forever, U.S. Marine decal. One has been on my surf vehicle for years.

Holy shit, dude do you live in Austin too?

not on your life brother...

Where I live it's simple fear of violence being done to my vehicle. Had all my yard signs stolen and my house egged during the '04 election cycle.

I have a bumper sticker on my car so I can tell my little white Honda Civic from a hundred other little white Honda Civics in the parking lot. It's a nice one that I picked up on the slopes of Mauna Kea, referring to the nice unobstructed view of the astronomical observatories there: "Mauna Kea -- Clearly The Best". And around the San Francisco Bay Area there are cars which appear to be held together by the dozens of bumper stickers all over their back ends, such that there is no need to ever speak to the occupant as his/her opinion is already being broadcast the the world at large. This is totally acceptable, but should one have a "W '04" sticker, one dare not put it on the car else risk having one's vehicle keyed. So much for free speech (not that I need the back end of my car to do my talking for me).

Whatever the reason, I find the "Question Assumptions" sticker a bit contradictory to the rest. Clearly this poor soul has unquestioningly swallowed every assumption of the left and gone back for seconds.

In the district where I live, cars with conservative bumper stickers get keyed. In the last major election, the Democrat running for Congress got 78% of the vote, the Green party candidate got 21%, and the remaining ~1% was split between three (I think) other candidates. I wouldn't be very surprised to find that there hasn't been a Republican elected there in living memory.

I've never been much of one for bumper stickers, in any case. The only bumper sticker I have on my car says, "It's not that I'm old - your music really does suck."

Liberals love to leave their Kerry/Edwards bumper stickers on their cars as some smug way to say, "I was right," even though the ideas of Kerry/Edwards were not tested to prove their idiocy.

The answer is extremely simple. Right brain vs. left brain.

When I see a car like that the first thing I think is "There goes a right brainer". You know the type, artsy-fartsy, superior, elitist, self righteous, in your face, insecure, chicken little "the sky is falling" everything is a crisis catastrophe or disaster thinking, attention and media whoremongering, mouth at a million miles an hour spewing babel drama queens, and that includes the males.