Obama 2012 Bumper Sticker: “It’s the 21st Century, Not The 18th Century”
By Ken Falkenstein | Saturday, May 14th, 2011 | Catch-AllToday I saw a car with a bumper sticker that said “Obama 2012: It’s the 21st century, not the 18th century.” In fairness to Obama, I checked his campaign web site and did not see this bumper sticker in the campaign store, so it does not appear to be an official Obama campaign bumper sticker. Nevertheless, from the other bumper stickers in support of Obama displayed on this car, this bumper sticker clearly was meant to be supportive of Obama and reflective of his worldview.
So, what does this pro-Obama slogan mean? Well, the reference to the 18th century clearly is a reference to the American Revolution and founding of the United States of America. And the only possible meaning of this bumper sticker is that Obama believes (or at least his supporters understand him to believe) that the principles on which this country was founded are outdated and irrelevant to 21st-century America. It further means that Obama’s governing principles are different than and supposedly superior to those founding principles.
Conservatives and libertarians have known all along that Obama and his leftist followers reject our country’s founding principles of limited government, maximum freedom, individual responsibility, free enterprise, and federalism. We have also watched as Obama and his leftist allies, including the establishment news media, work day after day to obscure this fact and try to dupe the American people into believing that they believe in our founding principles even as they work to subvert and undermine those principles and replace them with programmatic leftist collectivist statist policies.
That’s why I found this bumper sticker to be so surprising: It appears that Obama’s supporters are now so out of touch with mainstream America that they actually believe that renouncing our founding principles is a selling point to reelect Obama.
Works for me: The Republicans should print these bumper stickers by the thousands and provide them for free distribution at all Democrat and leftist events.
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About the author
Ken Falkenstein has been a staffer in the United States Senate and the Virginia House of Delegates. He has managed political campaigns. He was a military intelligence analyst in the U.S. Army in West Germany during the Cold War. He is currently a civil litigation attorney with Poole Mahoney, P.C. in Virginia Beach. But his concern for his kids' future is what most informs his writing.
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Comments
18 Responses to "Obama 2012 Bumper Sticker: “It’s the 21st Century, Not The 18th Century”"
I believe one of the original sentences in Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address was “It’s the 19th century not the 18th century and our forefathers are dead white males.” In the interest of saving time Lincoln didn’t recite it at the scene.
I have never seen this quote attributed to Lincoln (or anyone else), and a Google search provided no results. Please site a source for your claim that this is a Lincoln quote.
There is a new Obama sticker on cars now that says: [pic of Obama smiling] Does this ASS make our government look big?”
I saw it as “Does this ass make my car look big” – but I like yours better.
I always believed that if Obama wanted to make his “change” permanent, that he and his followers were going to have to call a Constitutional Convention during his second term. Therefore, the bumper sticker doesn’t surprise me at all.
While our Founding Fathers got it mostly right, don’t give them too much credit:
1. African-Americans were property (in most cases), not people.
2. In my native Maryland, the vote was based on land ownership, with additional votes given based on acreage.
Henry- No one says that the Founding Fathers (or anyone else) got everything 100% right. But their core principles of limited government, maximum freedom, individual responsibility, free enterprise, and federalism are universal and eternal. They are as relevant to today’s society as they were in the 18th century. And they’ll be equally relevant in the 30th and 40th centuries.
One more point: Most of the changes that we’ve made since the founding have been to eliminate those practices that were inconsistent with the principles of individual liberty. For example, we abolished slavery, gave women the vote and access to the workplace, and guaranteed the the right to vote to all people at age 18. Obama’s worldview would increase the power of the state and restrict individual liberty.
Ken,
I said I believe. I believe many things that may not be true as do we all.
Ken, I enjoyed this article and your replies. Good stuff.
One could argue that voting isn’t a principle of individual liberty, but rather civic equality. I wonder if we would have been better off never allowing people to vote who are likely to vote so as to provide themselves gains by taking from others. I guess I am one of those poorly educated people still living in the 18th century. Although, the first time I considered qualifications to vote was when I read Starship Troopers in 80′s when I was in High School.
Good point, JZ. However, our founders saw it as self-evident that we were created as equals. It could be argued that “civic equality” is fundamental to individual liberty. As much as we would rather that opportunists not vote, the idea of a select elite only being allowed to vote and have a say in government is in my opinion, far worse.
The fact of matter is the phrase “all men are created” really means “we are all born naked” and that is where it ends.
Loueexis, you twist our Founders’ words just a tad bit…
Interesting. Particularly since President Barry is plainly a disciple of a Nineteenth Century political philosophy: Marxism.
As an Obama supporter, I think your interpretation is incorrect, but I also think whoever made the bumper sticker got their centuries mixed up.
it’s 2010 not 1864. there’s ur clue.
You’re all wrong. In those times, the govt only helped the railroad barons, and the rich. Which is EXACTLY what the GOP is doing now. Name ONE thing they’ve done to help the normal person, without a giant tax break or deregulation for their corporate owners??? come on, just ONE, since nixon??? this idiot is in the professional RIGHT. Why even listen to his inane rantings. If you hate socialism so much, put your kids in private school, build your own roads, deliver your own mail, and take care of your parents retirement. otherwise, just shut up and accept that we are in a socialist democracy. NOT COMMUNISM. if you don’t know the difference, you’re a retard.
Dan:
1) Public schools are a locally funded issue, not federal. That said I would *gladly* send my kid to a private school if I could get my property taxes back to afford it. I’d also like to see the Department of Education (among other departments) axed to help balance the budget.
2) Roads and Mail are in the COTUS as a federal responsibility. They kind of help increase the opportunities for growth and prosperity among all Americans.
3) I love how people think social security and medicare mean they can totally ignore their parerent’s needs in their elderly years. Reality check, it’s your responibility to keep involved and make sure they are okay.
We are in a constitutional republic that uses socialism sparingly on the local and state levels as approved by the residents of those localities and states. At least we are supposed to be. Some people (like you apparently) forget that or never learned it from your public school.
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