Bumper stickers on a car from Missouri

[ribrepin]

I live in the outer reaches of the Seattle area. We have a lot of libertarian around here, but I saw something today that made my jaw drop. A car from Missouri had two bumper stickers. One said "Abortion-The Supreme court also said slavery is Legal." The second one said "Tolerance-is just another word for no moral values."
I don't remember the exact wording, but this is the gist of the bumper stickers.

Two questions--did the Supreme court ever rule that slavery is legal? I've racked my brain and can't remember learning about that one. My second question is--my husband's company is moving some of their people to Kansas. Are these types of bumper stickers common in the Midwest or is this guy some nut?

I'm used to the "Thank you President Bush" stickers, but I was really stupefied by these. Maybe I live in a bubble around here. I sure hope my husband doesn't get transferred to Kansas.

[Kelvin Mace]

1. In essence

yes, the Dred Scott decision.

[ribrepin]

4. Thanks--I couldn't come up with the tie-in

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. The Supremes did rule, once, that slavery was legal.

That was the Dred Scott decision in 1856 -- before the Civil War. However, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, effective in 1865, abolished slavery. So even though slavery was constitutional in 1856, it isn't now, and the Supreme Court could no longer rule that it is. Stupid freeper bumper sticker proves those boneheads don't know history for shit.

[ribrepin]

5. Thanks --I couldn't figure out what he was trying to say.

I sure hope my husband doesn't get transferred. It bad enough living around the libertarians.

[yardwork]

40. They're obsessed with Dred Scott - it has a tie-in to the Civil War

Remember chimpy mentioned Dred Scott during the second debate? Out of nowhere, seemingly.

It's code for "I'm on your side, southern racist good old boys."

[thefloyd]

3. Depends on where you are.

I am from Kansas City, Missouri. Born and raised. I am guessing the car in question was from southern missouri. Saint Louis, Kansas City not as radical. Kansas, If you are moving to Johnson County( one of the richest counties in the nation) Conservatives, but simply for money reasons. Rural Kansas, I am sure those types of bumper stickers come in vending machines.

[ribrepin]

6. Wichita

I sure hope he doesn't get transferred.

[Divine Discontent]

7. counter those stickers!!!!! LOL

sure these wouldn't get you SHOT at in some of those areas... ha..
you'd probably get away with the village idiot one, but the others may cause a news story.. I PRAY FOR YOU & YOUR HUSBAND!

http://www.cafepress.com/warisprofitable.14537103
war is profitable, buy stock in halliburton, why should they get it all?

http://www.cafepress.com/worstpresidentw.17428063
buck fush

http://www.cafepress.com/prideoftexas.17427800
pardon me, but, fuck dubya!(CUTE & SURE TO MAKE SOMEONE UPSET! LOL)

http://www.cafepress.com/village_idiot1.14617351




MY FAVORITE ~~~~~

http://www.cafepress.com/shrubwear.16880445
God wanted Bush?
Alcoholic AWOL drug users have all the fun!


here's something similar to what you were looking for ---
http://www.cafepress.com/worstpresidentw.17428064

[Chipper Chat]

12. No mention here of Topeka (FredPhelpsville)

Just the thought of driving through there gives me the creeps.

[MuseRider]

16. Drive through you might learn something.

born there, still there and it is a wonderful place. Fred is only one thing, there are many good things here. I do not see bumper stickers like that here very often, in fact I think the worst I have seen is the Bush/Cheney stickers. I saw all the awful ones while in rural New York state.

[proud2BlibKansan]

29. I'm in KC too

born and raised. You make great points.

Welcome to DU :hi:

Are you coming to the meetup next week?

[thefloyd]

36. Actually I live in Saint Louis now

Do they have meetups in Saint Louis?

[ikojo]

30. St Louis had it's right to life whackos

Just a few weeks ago the new Archbishop hosted a right to life march down Lindell near the New Cathedral.

In St Charles County (VERY red) there are billboards on highway 70 espousing the so called right to life view..

[Wapsie B]

8. Probably from Branson. n/t

[jdots]

9. there are good people everywhere

i live in what is supposed to be a blue state and we have a govenor who is a muscle bound turd maggot that should be cleaning toilets in a Wall-Mart.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

11. I live in a blue state, too,

and our governor is a Republican yuppie greedhead dipshit who is doing his damnedest to destroy all social programs that benefit the poor so he can cut his rich suburbanite constituency's taxes some more. Cleaning toilets in a Wal-Mart would be too good for Tim Pawlenty; he should be cleaning toilets in a truck stop. With his tongue.

[MisterP]

15. ugh, Führer Nipples

[Lexingtonian]

10. yep

The Supreme Court had to rule that slavery was legal before the Civil War because the Constitution defined it as legal. States did abolish it. The Dred Scott case was as bitter and controversial as it was because the slavers got the Fugitive Slave Act imposed on the non-slave states; this led to jury nullifications in the North, then the Preston Brooks/Charles Sumner caning incident, and then Massachusetts getting the Buchanan Administration to put as many federal troops as possible into South Carolina.

Intolerance- a word for moral values that aren't moral, or Christian. Famously, the one time Jesus was grossly intolerant involved the money changers in the Temple....

If you have to move to Kansas, do get yourself a copy of Thomas Frank's What's the Matter with Kansas? beforehand- Amazon has copies at $10 used and $17 new. It'll explain a lot of what you'll find in all the gory detail you can bear. (Go to your nearest library and xerox out the ~2002 excerpt published in The New Yorker, it's ~10 pages and to the point.)

[ultraist]

14. "Seperate but Equal"

Jim Crow laws

[ribrepin]

19. I've read "What's the matter with Kansas"

It's scary how brain-washed the people were in the book and how many of them used to be democrats. I'm sure there are some good democrats in Kansas, but seemed like the most of the state was conservative.

The bumper sticker today creeped me out. Equaling tolerance to no moral values. We've got righties around here, but they spend all their time thanking Bush and whining about Dino Rossi not getting elected. I'll take our righties any day over this guy.

Of course, what kind of fool drives to a blue state with those bumper stickers?

[LSdemocrat]

13. I'm from St. Louis - never seen any of those bumper stickers

[StlMo]

25. I haven't seen them either.

There are ignorant jackasses and their bumper stickers in every state.

There are also intelligent, informed people (and their bumper stickers) in this state and every other.

In fact, there are many, many progressives in Missouri (St. Louis and Kansas City are dark blue areas of a purple state).

[gumby]

17. The objection to "tolerance" is indeed important.

That this language actually manifests in a bumper sticker is chilling.

Read Plaid Adder's comments http://www.democraticunderground.com/plaidder/05/39.html

[ComerPerro]

18. Hey, I'm in Kansas.

Try to live near KC, Lawrence, or Wichita

[illuminaughty]

20. Hello from Kansas City

No, you wouldn't see that around the Metro. But rural KS or MO, who knows? I love the hypocrisy. Equating tolerance to no moral values, but sporting the "slavery" sticker next to it.

Some of these rascist bastards if they had to choose, would gladly overturn Roe v. Wade even if it meant the return of legalized slavery.

[corbett]

21. The Emperor Has No Mandate

http://www.cafepress.com/hasnomandate

[NNadir]

22. The Supreme Court ruled that people of African decent were basically

not people (phrased as "not citizens" but "property"), in 1857. This decision lead directly to the American Civil War.

The specious attachment of this case to fetuses is a new hallmark of the fundies attack on women's rights, which apparently will now succeed. I defy them to produce a single fetus that was, like Dred Scott, able to file a petition in court on its own behalf.

[jhain]

23. Dred Scott, Explained: It's About Abortion

You may recall:


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/10/9/16460/5820


Dred Scott, Explained: It's About Abortion
by Kynn
Sat Oct 9th, 2004 at 13:46:00 PST

Oh, duh. Like, major duh.

The "Dred Scott" reference by Bush sent everyone at Atrios and other blog sites scrambling to historical tomes to figure out what on Earth Mr. Bush could mean, short of saying that he wouldn't appoint pro-slavery judges.

Really, we should have just done a damn google search on the Internets.

Because it's all there, plain as day. The Dred Scott reference is code language for abortion rights. Here's how one anti-choice site describes it:

Stephen Douglas didn't see Dred Scott as a person with rights because he was black; now Al Gore doesn't see these children as people with rights because they are unborn.

And here:

Not if one listens to what is being said on the retirement of Justice Harry Blackmun, author of Roe vs. Wade, the Dred Scott decision of our time. Roe made it clear that the unborn child -- fetus, if that term is more comfortable -- has no rights that the state is bound to respect.

And like Dred Scott, Roe was handed down in the name of an individual right. Roger Taney's decision in Dred Scott was based on the Fifth Amendment's guarantee that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law. Justice Blackmun based Roe on a vague right of privacy nowhere spelled out in the Constitution but ""broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy. ''

And here:

[ribrepin]

28. Thanks for the link

It's all there. I hadn't seen that type of bumper stickers before.

It chills me to see a bumper sticker promoting intolerance.

[meow2u3]

24. Fascists stole the abortion-slavery link

...from the (silenced) pro-life LEFT!

[ck4829]

26. Who is the Maniac that gave the 'majority' a Lobotomy?

[bling bling]

27. That's just a Missourian in Bush's "base"

The mentality of some of the people I've met outside of the major metropolitan areas here is frightening.

The type of people who would display those bumper stickers are also the type of people who:

1) Believe John Kerry wanted to ban the bible
2) Believe John Kerry had legalized gay marriage on his platform
3) STILL believe we were sitting ducks with Saddam in power

Did you notice how Bush spoke slowly, carefully pronouncing ever word in the SOTU, like he was talking to children? He was just speaking to his "base".

It's no coincidence the Repubs never seem to make education a priority.

[LostInAnomie]

31. By the same token though the founding fathers declared slavery legal.

The constitution makes provisions to allow the continuation of slavery.

That bumper sticker is just an example of the dishonest cherry picking those fascists are willing to resort to. Even if you were to review Roe v. Wade it is clear that it does not allow unmitigated abortion on demand.

[Gabi Hayes]

32. there are tons of great response stickers here

http://www.evolvefish.com/fish/stickers.html

[Scout1071]

33. I'm on the Kansas side of KC. There are many, many Dems

in my area. Of course, the DNC is so short-sided that they can't see that a little investment in this area could go a long way. People talk about how "red" Kansas is, but as I have discussed in several threads lately, we have a Dem Governor and my Rep is a Dem. The people here really do believe more in Dem "values." They are just sold on the branding/marketing effort of the Repubs. It's sad, but it isn't happening in just Kansas.

Having said that, I like living in Kansas City. And I certainly hope that you don't make up your mind about a whole state based on one stupid bumper sticker.

[thefloyd]

37. You are absolutely right

about the Kansas City area. I grew up in Blue Springs, and believe there are people that could be reached with little investment.

[catmandu57]

34. I live in deep red missouri

It was nice living here once upon a time, but the money found us and then came the mcmansion subdivisions, and suvs and we became a bedroom suburb.
We have our share of bushie* supporters, and I've only seen two nutcases with bumperstickers like that. So, it's hard to say just where they were from.

[thefloyd]

38. I will admit I have

an SUV but I TOW. I was strugling with the purchase but A) My honda accord could not tow. B) I was using it for practical reasons

[Pork Chop]

35. The Dread Scott Decision in 1857

The Supreme Court declared that the Constitution did not apply to blacks, and that it was unconstitutional to abolish slavery in any state (so basically, after this decision you could legally own a cotton plantation in Massachusates or any other northern state). This is arguably the worst decision made by the Supreme Court (39 years later they declared segregation legal, which was pretty bad too), and certainly helped start the civil war.

http://www.tourolaw.edu/patch/Scott/

I'm not sure about the midwest, but I do know that you would find bumper stickers like that in the south. I imagine they aren't common, but they aren't a rarity either.

[Az]

39. In essence they are right

It is a question of dogmatic moral values vs progressive moral values.

Dogmatic moral values take their que from a fixed set of rules held by some doctrine of belief system. They are fixed and unchanging. They are declared to be definitive rules concering good and evil. There is no questioning them.

Progressive or relativistic moral values are ever changing. As we learn more about our human nature and are introduced to more cultures and values our progressive sense of right and wrong shifts over time. In essence we have no fixed set of moral values.

So let consider these bumper stickers. At one time the courts did consider slavery to be acceptable. It took advancing soical values to turn the tide and enable the courts to finally rule that slavery was wrong. Incidently many of the arguments justifying slavery came from the bible (whether they were good interps or not is another question).

So from this we see that the courts of this land are in fact progressive and embrace relativistic morality. They learn over time.

Tolerance is a rejection of a moral code that deigns others evil. In fact it is the rejection of the notion that one set of morals is superior to another set. It embraces all people and tries to form its moral code by consensus rather than dogmatic authority. Tolerance does not embrace a single set moral code. It embraces a process of finding morality amongst a diverse people.