Bumper Stickers

I’m sure the bumper stickers have already been printed.
“She’s not my President”

“He’s not my President”

The first time I remember anything close that kind of message was in the Watergate Era when people from Massachusetts – the only state George McGovern carried – began sporting bumper stickers on their cars that said “Don’t’ blame me, I’m from Massachusetts.”

But I don’t recall people ever saying that Richard Nixon wasn’t their President. And no one suggested that Gerald Ford wasn’t, either.

Nixon was never a popular guy in Massachusetts dating back to when he and John Kennedy competed in 1960. But that doesn’t mean he wasn’t respected.

My Dad – a good Irish Catholic Democrat – worked at a downtown Boston hotel where Nixon made an appearance during the 1960 campaign.  My Dad shook Nixon’s hand and I’ll never forget how excited he was every time he would ask friends and family members to “shake the hand that shook Richard Nixon’s hand.”

My Dad never voted for Nixon, but he also never said that “he’s not my President.”

My guess is that the “not my President” sentiment became in vogue when Al Gore won the popular vote, but George W. Bush received enough Electoral College support to move into the White House.  The sentiment has gotten even louder these last eight years, sadly reflecting a society where not everyone believes that we’re equal.

The slurs and the insults that have been sent President Obama’s way might be a preview of what will be said if Hillary Clinton wins in November.  (Just imagine some of those bumper stickers…)

“Not my President” is just another example of our cafeteria approach to issues large and small. 

Boycott the NFL because Colin Kaepernick’s protest during the National Anthem is disrespectful of the flag. But, it’s ok for my favorite country artist to use the flag as a patch on his jeans.

It’s perfectly fine for some to say that American isn’t great.  But, if others did, Sean Hannity and friends would be apoplectic.

It seems that the difference isn’t what you’re doing or saying, it’s who you are that makes it acceptable or not.

Magician Penn Jillette, who has become known for his political musings as much as his Las Vegas stage show, says that “democracy without respect for individual rights sucks. It's just ganging up against the weird kid, and I'm always the weird kid.”

We seem to be losing is our willingness to agree to disagree.  We don’t all need to have the same views, that would be pretty boring. But we do need to start respecting other people’s ideas again, even if we don't understand why they think the way they do and couldn’t disagree with them more.

We all have the right to be wrong in someone else’s opinion.