{"id":855,"date":"2010-10-26T18:37:43","date_gmt":"2010-10-26T23:37:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.drweevil.org\/?p=855"},"modified":"2010-10-31T19:13:17","modified_gmt":"2010-11-01T00:13:17","slug":"another-straw-in-the-wind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.drweevil.org\/?p=855","title":{"rendered":"Another Straw in the Wind?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a quick search, I have found nothing about this on the web. For the past two or three months, someone has been parking white semi-trailers around the central Shenandoah Valley, with political messages painted on them. They’re not always in the same place, and I’ve seen them in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County, mostly along I-81, also on I-64 in Augusta County between Staunton and Waynesboro. With the state of the economy, I suspect it didn’t cost all that much to rent the trailers, assuming they did not already belong to whoever is responsible for the messages.<\/p>\n

I wish I had had my camera along the last time I drove from Staunton to Harrisonburg, since I saw three of them, two on I-81 and one on Port Republic Road. Here is a picture taken on the fly by fellow-Stauntonian Andrea Harris of Spleenville<\/a> a month or two ago:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Here are all of the messages I’ve seen so far. I don’t know if there are five trailers, or more, or if some have been repainted with different messages at different times:<\/p>\n

Congress:
\nRepresent the American People or Go Home!
\nVote Out All<\/s> Most<\/font> Incumbents ✔ote<\/font><\/p>\n

– – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n

Congress: Have You Read Our Constitution?
\nVote Out All<\/s> Most<\/font> Incumbents ✔ote<\/font><\/p>\n

– – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n

Congress: Why All the Arrogance?
\nYou Work For Us
\nVote Out All<\/s> Most<\/font> Incumbents ✔ote<\/font><\/p>\n

– – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n

What You Promised While Campaigning
\nShould Be What You Do When Elected
\nVote Out All<\/s> Most<\/font> Incumbents ✔ote<\/font><\/p>\n

– – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n

Congress: You Have Failed Us
\nVote Out All<\/s> Most<\/font> Incumbents ✔ote<\/font><\/p>\n

If I recall correctly, they originally said “Vote out all incumbents”, without the “most” (which is sometimes written above the “all”, sometimes across it, as in the picture). I wonder which incumbents have since won the author’s support. The most obvious guess would be our local congressman, Bob Goodlatte<\/a> (R – 6th district), whose positions seem more in tune with the truck messages than most of Congress. I also wonder whether the trucks are the work of (a) one pissed-off voter with money to spend, or (b) one pissed-off businessman with plenty of idle trailers and idle painters and enough money left to pay for paint, or (c) a whole group of pissed-off voters. I’ve certainly never seen anything like it in previous election years, at least on this scale. I do recall a bumper-sticker I saw in Monterey, California in 1966, when Reagan defeated Pat Brown: “If It’s Brown, Flush It”. It made a big impression on my then 13-year-old self, but may have been a one-of-a-kind.<\/p>\n

Update:<\/strong> (8:15pm, Halloween)<\/p>\n

Here’s the message on the sixth trailer:<\/p>\n

America does not need new parties
\nIt needs new candidates
\nVote Out All<\/s> Most<\/font> Incumbents ✔ote<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a quick search, I have found nothing about this on the web. For the past two or three months, someone has been parking white semi-trailers around the central Shenandoah Valley, with political messages painted on them. They’re not always in the same place, and I’ve seen them in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County, mostly along […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.drweevil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.drweevil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.drweevil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.drweevil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.drweevil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=855"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"http:\/\/www.drweevil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":884,"href":"http:\/\/www.drweevil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855\/revisions\/884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.drweevil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.drweevil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.drweevil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}