Political Road Rage (Or, what happened to me while driving to work)

[Zhade]

(Posted on my blog, but I thought I'd share it with my fellow DUers.)

Something happened on the way to work yesterday that shook me, and I think it reflects a growing chasm between liberal and conservative Americans - a gap created, fostered, and foisted upon all of us by the powers-that-be in an attempt to manage and control us.

I'm in my car, listening to KPFK 90.7 (I live in Southern California). It's a fairly nice day, so my window is down a bit, which allows me to hear the blaring horn to my right.

I look over, and see a huge black extended-cab pickup truck complete with camper shell - you know, the kind of setup that makes a truck look like an SUV. What really catches my eye is the driver, who has pulled up beside me and slowed down to keep pace with me. He flips me the bird and yells at me, paying little attention to the road and the irritated honks from behind him.

Clearly, he's seen my bumper stickers. I have about a dozen on the back of my car, and they range from "Buck Fush" to "Regime Change in 2004". There's a Buzzflash sticker back there, too.

The angry driver spots a gap ahead of me in the now-unmoving traffic, pedal meets metal, and he swerves in front of me, slowing down so fast I have to tap the brakes to avoid hitting him. The American flag sticker on the back of his truck looks old, faded. He takes advantage of the traffic stop, leaning bodily out of his window to shake his fist at me.

His face is red. Angry. He is screaming. Not yelling. Screaming.

This goes on for about 30 seconds, then the moving traffic forces him to return to the wheel. I speed past, shaken but pissed off - I mean, I didn't taunt the guy or anything. I did, however (against my better judgement) flip him the bird as I drove past.

What if I was crazy and had a gun? I'm not, and I don't, but what if? This guy could have been asking for a world of hurt. He looked like he wanted to get out of his truck and beat the snot out of me. Had my car also had a sticker revealing my bisexuality, maybe he would have.

I might be overreacting, but even if I am it's important to notice these things. This man was enraged over bumper stickers. BUMPER STICKERS!

All because the corporate media allows and pushes lies that divide us, when the truth would unite us against the bastards keeping us down.

[Bozita]

1. In the freeper world, "freedom to hate" trumps "freedom of speech"

You ... you ... terraist sporter, you!

[RebelOne]

2. That's why I'm reluctant to put anti-Bush bumper stickers

on my car. I have an Impeach Bush bumper sticker, but did not want to put it on my bumper. Instead, it is pasted up in my cubicle at the office. I live in the Atlanta, GA metro area and a lot of the rednecks are Bush lovers. Plus, I am a female and would not have too much defense against a someone threatening me on the road.

[Kanary]

11. I'm with you, RebelOne

A woman living alone has enough to fear without adding to it.

Sad, but true.

Kanary

[BigDaddyLove]

16. Fuck being afraid of them..........

as their fearless leader says, "Bring 'em on".


Granted, I'm a male and I don't normally recommend nor promote violence (and totally understand your reticence to get involved physically with someone over something as stupid as Bush), but if someone out there wants to try to run me off the road because of a bumper sticker then I'm all about teaching them why Democrats win wars.

[Jeebo]

3. I had a similar experience...

...a couple of years ago. I returned to my car after walking around in the mall for a while to find a hastily scribbled note on the windshield. This person was similarly offended by the liberal bumper stickers on my car. I don't remember exactly what the note said but its author accused me, among other things, of "idiasy." If I had been able to respond to him (her?), I would have pointed out that my scores on the last three IQ tests I took were 131, 142 and 123, which is not good enough to get into Mensa but still considerably above the "idiasy" level, but that to whatever extent I do possess some measure of "idiasy," at least I know how to spell the word. I've changed cars since then and haven't put any bumper stickers on the car I'm driving now, which needs some repairs and I'm worried about what might happen if the mechanic objects to my bumper stickers. But after the repairs are done, I'll re-adorn the car. I already have an impressive array of Bush-bashing bumper stickers and am suffering from a sensory-overload condition in trying to decide which ones to use. Here are some that I made myself in Quark and Photoshop and printed out on a color laser printer where I work and will affix to the car with two-inch-wide clear cellophane packing tape:

DUMP "DEFICIT DUBYA" IN '04
Because he's a divider, not a uniter

DUMP "DEFICIT DUBYA" IN '04
Because he's a compassionLESS conservative

DUMP "DEFICIT DUBYA" IN '04
Restore Honor, Decency and Integrity to the Oval Office

I just LOVE to throw right-wingers' rhetoric right back at them! Can y'all tell?

Ron

[Kanary]

12. An idea for the meantime...

Since you really want to have the bumperstickers, this may help you.

Some people have glued magnetic strips on the back of their stickers, so they stick to the bumper, but can be removed if needed.

That way, you could chuckle at what your mechanic doesn't know about you. :)

:toast:

Kanary

[Zhade]

22. I had better luck - someone loved the stickers and left a note saying so!

NT!

[TorchTheWitch]

23. try this instead...

Here are some that I made myself in Quark and Photoshop and printed out on a color laser printer where I work and will affix to the car with two-inch-wide clear cellophane packing tape

Forget the packing tape. The first time it rains, the bumper sticker will be ruined... that stuff isn't designed to get wet. I once had my side mirror whacked off by some ass plowing down the road and got too close to my car (whoever it was never stopped and just sped on their way like nothing happened). For a few months had to afix a vanity mirror to what was left of the side mirror with clear packing tape so I would still have something that basically functioned as a mirror until I had enough money to get a new one put on. Every time it rained, the glue on the tape came right off, so I had to drive around with a roll of the tape and pair of scissors in the car and keep reattaching it.

You can actually have a real honest-to-goodness bumper sticker printed up for a few dollars. Check the yellow pages for a place that does that or search online. Actually, I think you might even be able to do that at Kinkos, too (I know you can do them in bulk there, but not sure about just a few).

[amber dog democrat]

4. You probably made him think

That alone is a capitol offense with some people.

[ithacan]

5. type of guy who'll be shock troops for the fascists

and people don't understand how the Nazis came to power?

It was exactly through guys like the one you describe.

The right wing taps into that rage and directs it against whoever they decide is the enemy. And the rage is a killing rage.

[fleetus]

6. Dude, that is a crazy story. (n/t)

[Cleita]

7. That's why I don't advertise my politics on my car.

There's too many of the same type of freepers in my neck of the woods. However, you should keep a pad and pencil handy and the next time someone does that to you, get his license number and file a complaint with the police saying your were threatened, because it's the truth. He endangered not only you but others on the road too.

Whether they follow up on it or not is another thing, but if they get enough complaints about his yoyo, the next time they pull him over for a traffic stop, they could be more interested in searching him for weapons and stuff than they ordinarily would be.

[rhino91063]

8. Please don't do that

the conservatives want you to live in fear. They want you to be afraid to speak what you know to be true. That way the ONLY voice America hears comes from right wing nuts. If your values are important to you, do be afraid to stand up for them.

[BiggJawn]

10. My values are important, but my deductable is $500....

When I drove POS beaters, I carried my politics on my bumper. Back "in the day", I might find a note on the windshield that said "Yur a Kommy basturd", but at least I'd still have a windshield.

Not today. I'm sure at the LEAST I'd get my paint keyed, at the worst, I'd lose glass.
If these cowards would like to debate me face-to-face, that'd be great, but instead, their preferred method of response is to destroy my property, and I don't make enough money to get my truck re-painted 3X a year.

[Pikku]

20. The police weren't very helpful

when something similar happened to me. I was at a drive-through, a "war is not the answer" bumper sticker on my car. A guy pulled in behind me, GOT OUT of his car, and proceeded to yell a string of expletives at me, glued together with a few rushisms. I was frightened, but waited until I got home to call the police and ATTEMPT to file a complaint. The officer who answer the phone said he couldn't do anything, even though I had the license number and the make/color of the car. He said that the guy was "expressing his own political views" and maybe was a veteran or knew one, yada yada. In short, the guy was entitled to threaten me, and I asked for it by having such an incendiary sticker on my car. (It was from a Quaker bumpersticker. Incendiary, indeed.)

Not a satisfactory resolution. The police reaction makes me angrier than the ranting guy himself.

:mad:

[RainDog]

9. do you have a cell phone?

put the police dept. number on there as one of the buttons.

if anyone does this to you again, call the police and tell them that there is someone on the road who is endangering lives by cutting you off and forcing you to slam on the breaks to avoid hitting him.

Get his license plate number and give it to the police.

If everyone would do this, and that license plate kept coming up, maybe the asshole would get a driving lesson from the police.

and I do have bumper stickers on my car, and right now I have a sign in the window at my house.

I will not kowtow to the totalitarian idiots in this country.

[Mari333]

13. How awful gads!

I had it happen a few times too..and I have my military stepsons picture on my Jeep..its pretty obvious Im a military mom with a kid going to Iraq with what my bumper stickers say..
we have been
driven at by trucks
had trucks with guys in them try to run me off the road
tailgate me
car keyed
car door kicked in
tried to tear off lisence plate
man screaming at me and my husband at bank drive thru "YOU SHOULD BOTH GO TO IRAQ AND LIVE THERE SHAME ON U"
and on and on..
basically, these people are cowards.
basically, if I ever get their lisence plate numbers (they always drive away fast)
I will report them.
I already let the police chief here know.
I expect this will get worse as the Boy Emperor's poll numbers go down.
edit to add: these are the stages of grief
denial (lots of people still in it)
anger (thats what these people are in)
I wonder if they will ever be in acceptance?
Their Boy King is a liar and a thief and a war criminal.

[devinsgram]

14. The only supporters * has anymore

are the wingnuts out there. They know *'s going down and they don't like it. As the election gets closer and his numbers keep dropping, believe me they will get uglier. They don't like to be proved wrong.

[soup]

15. been there, done that, lived to tell...

The main thing is, I'm glad you're ok.

Been through so many incidents myself, it gives new meaning to the words 'defensive driving'.


The good news is, it doesn't seem to be nearly as bad here (Florida) as it used to be.


One guy scared the daylights out of me when he pulled over in front of me coming up on a stoplight. When his car stopped, he jumped out and came back to my car window. I had cars behind me, so couldn't move. :scared: times 3.

He asked where I'd gotten one of my bumper stickers- loved it, and wanted one for himself.

----------

You said, "I did, however (against my better judgement) flip him the bird as I drove past."

Smile, and throw up a peace sign, instead. Let the rage be theirs. Let the anger ruin his day, not yours. It confuses the hell out of some of them, too.

[MissB]

17. Excellent advice at the end of your post (nt)

[Zhade]

21. Yeah. I've done that before.

Guy just caught me off my game - my mind was already uptight.

Good advice to remember!

[soup]

25. One red-faced rager got 4.

My sons and a friend were with me one afternoon about a year ago.

The jerk in the big truck did the up on my rear bumper thing, then cut over beside me to honk furiously and flip me off. He said something to the kid with him (maybe 12 yrs old) and the kid yelled over something along the lines of 'stupid assholes' with his middle fingers raised, as well. Lovely, hey?

I said, "you know what to do." to my sons as our lane moved forward faster than his. We went past the truck with 4 people, arms raised skyward in peace signs.

Figure that guy spent a good amount of time ranting and raving afterwards, while we went on with our day. Shaken, for sure- and a little worried for the child in the truck with the apoplectic nutcase.

That was before I added 'Mission accomplished?' and 'No More Lies' and 'bush/cheney death, debt, deceit' and 'war is a sign of failure, not strength' to my 'attack Iraq? no' and 'Democratic Underground' stickers.

Like I said before, I'm just glad you're ok.

[lostnfound]

18. Your last sentence is worth its weight in gold.

"All because the corporate media allows and pushes lies that divide us, when the truth would unite us against the bastards keeping us down."

I was having a similar thought today -- thinking how there has to be so much MORE media out there, for leftwingers and rightwingers, because we are both so dissatisfied by the media because we know we can't trust it. And as a result our views of the world are so dramatically divided, the chasm goes ever deeper.

Thinking about the difference between Russert saying "principles are for paupers" (or similar) and the days of "That's the way it is" Walter Cronkite.

[drdigi420]

19. rednecks suck

why waste time worrying about this bubba?

he'll probably be too drunk or too busy beating his wife to vote

i live in atlanta and i don't go outside I-285 because of people like that

maybe you can relocate to the city, where there is a better thinking person/neanderthal ratio

[wyldwolf]

24. Happened to me once

I'm kind of a big guy so I'm not easily intimidated.

At the light, I grabbed a sharpie and wrote "REDNECK" real big on a pad of paper and held it up to him, smiling.

He made a movement as though he was getting out of his vehicle. I motioned for him to come on!

He didn't.

Damn!

[dbt]

26. More of the Limbaugh Legacy:

Not only is it OK to hate, violence is good when it's directed at Unbelievers. Talk Radio should have been strangled in its snaky little crib!

:argh:
dbt

[imax2268]

27. I would have called 911...

took down his plate number and reported him to the police...that kind of stuff on the roads these days is no laughing matter...that would have really got the freeper mad...besides it would be funnier than hell if you ask me...!