Mike,

Before we came to Boulder last January, I was thinking that some aspects of the town would be much the same as when I lived here in the ’60s: political activism, marches, inflammatory posters, streaker parades, and above all, wonderfully diverse bumper stickers plastered on every car. Well, that’s only partially true. There are a diverse bunch of bumper stickers here, but I have seen bumper stickers on only about 1 car in 30. That’s much less than in Bowie, where it seemed like every other car has a Bush/Cheney or a Kerry/Edwards sticker. However, Bowie sported few really interesting/funny/scandalous ones.

So, since January, 2007, I’ve been peering at every bumper sticker that came within range. For 5 months, I looked in vain for a Bush/Cheney bumper sticker. To my happy surprise, None! Nada! Zip! So I tentatively concluded that, since Colorado is nominally a Red state (see footnote), with lots of conservative ranchers, the Bushies must avoid Boulder as a source of plague-bearing liberalism. Either that, or the city has posted automatic laser beams at every entrance to town, and the labels and/or cars with Bush/Cheney on them get vaporized as they drive in.

After viewing the rear ends of over 1000 cars, I started transcribing my scribbled notes into electronic media. Then, just before CU’s graduation day I happened to see a pickup truck near the campus, spotting a Bush/Cheney bumper sticker below its MONTANA plate. Somehow that truck managed to evade the laser beams. I don’t include on the list because I’m counting only Colorado cars.

Footnote:
Colorado has a Democratic governor, 4 of its 7 congressmen are Democrats, and the senators are split between the parties. Seems like it should be, nominally, a blue state.

–rakkity