> While I'm not sure if it is a national phenomena, it seems as if there
> might be a good opportunity for you sell a lot of bumper stickers if
> you were to start something of a campaign to promote the THINK stickers
> as a democratic vote and the BELIEVE stickers as a Republican vote.

I don't think that the ineffable mystery of the universe is well reduced to a 'Think' vs 'Believe' dichotomy. I also don't believe that our political divisions map neatly into think=democratic vs believe=republican.

Actually, as I consider 'issues' I am struck by the number of issues in which the 'think' side is either the republican side, or as good a case can be made for either side being the 'thinkers.'

You know what...moving even further into the issue, I'll assert that 'Thinking' is intriniscally conservative. It is belief that is profoundly liberal and intellectual.

We do not advance through our thinking, but through our beliefs. Later, once we gain support for our beliefs we codify them with 'facts' to give the illusion that they came from 'thinking' but no (well, few) great innovations have come about from the intellect. They all start as wild beliefs.

> I do not feel that there are quite as many Republican voters willing
> to express an overtly fundamentalist viewpoint and it might cause them
> to consider just what it was that they did vote for.

One could make a very strong case that they voted based on extemely rational 'thinking.' We believed in Kerry, and in Democratic values, and we believed that those would be sufficient to pull us out of the mess that we are in. The other side thought about the current situation, analyzed it, and came to the rational 'thinking' conclusion that the world is extemely uncertain, and that Kerry represented too much of a risk of uncertainty. Sure Bush has problems, this 'thinking' can argue, but we can't afford the uncertainty that Kerry brings.

Putting different weights on different aspects of a complicated political decision does not mean that a person does not think, or that they are stupid.

And believing that your religous tradition provides appropriate tools to help you and your society navigate a changing cultural landscape does not mean that you are a 'fundamentalist' who doesn't think. Actually, quite the contrary. What is the basis for the 'thinking' that a society is improved by the desctruction of religous institutions and the elevation of new and unproven secular associations to take their place?

I happen to believe in a liberal secular society, but that is based on my personal sense of values. Belief in strong religious institutions has a much stronger basis in 'thinking' then does my belief in secular society.

And all of that only applies to the religous right! What about the non-religous right? The part who honestly (and I fear not without some merit) argue for less rather than more connections between the government and the economic life of our nation?

Is someone not 'thinking' because they value economic efficiency over what would ironically normally be called Christian Charity? If I vote for a lower minimum wage, and against 'economic justice' am I not 'thinking?'

Or rather, am I 'thinking' outside of your beliefs in economic justice? In compassion? In fairness?

Who is thinking, and who is believing in that case?

Who 'thinks' more: a college professor or a company CEO? Which one of them 'believes' more? How about between a liberal author and a Major in Army intelligence?

And who most lives in 'reality?' The scattered cultural remnents who firmly grip the fading blanket of their 'reality based community' or the people of strong will (of all political and cultural persuassions) who create reality?

When they had the intestinal fortitude to actually state that reality is what they create I _almost_ gained respect for them.

They are not operating in some strange fantasy world, out of touch with the world, and with reality. No! They are operating to create reality. A reality I don't like, but reality itself.

Think vs Believe? It doesn't work for me. I believe that they spend too much time thinking, and I think that I spend too much time believing, for that dichotomy to fly.

And...that leaves aside the whole issue that if it does get framed as 'we think they believe' we will lose...

Here is the origianal message...

From brodix@earthlink.net Sat Nov  6 11:22:20 2004
Date: Sat, 6 Nov 2004 13:43:11 -0500
From: John B. 
Reply-To: media-squatters@yahoogroups.com
To: media-squatters@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [media-squatters] Bumper sticker war


I just finished sending this to a company called Bumperart. Maybe 
others could send them some encouragement.

webmaster@bumperart.com

Sirs,

  I live in the Baltimore area and for the last five or six years, I've 
seen stickers that said BELIEVE (or BELEIVE HON). As I recall, they 
arose as a religious response to bumper stickers that said THINK, which 
were mildly popular at the time.

  While I'm not sure if it is a national phenomena, it seems as if there 
might be a good opportunity for you sell a lot of bumper stickers if 
you were to start something of a campaign to promote the THINK stickers 
as a democratic vote and the BELIEVE stickers as a Republican vote.

Obviously I am of the THINK persuasion and feel there is a strong need 
among those who voted for Kerry to express themselves in a benign, but 
organized fashion.

  I do not feel that there are quite as many Republican voters willing 
to express an overtly fundamentalist viewpoint and it might cause them 
to consider just what it was that they did vote for.

  I recall seeing displays in stores that had both Republican and 
Democratic stickers and this might be an effective way to promote this 
concept.

As it is, you are the first company I've approached with this idea and 
if you are interested, would you respond back by the middle of next 
week, otherwise I'll assume you are not interested and will approach 
other businesses.

Regards,

John B. Merryman Jr.
Sparks, Md.