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Tuesday: October 26, 2010

Another Straw in the Wind?

Filed under: — site admin @ 6:37 PM GMT-0500

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.

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 month or two ago:

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:

Congress:
Represent the American People or Go Home!
Vote Out All Most Incumbents ✔ote

– – – – – – – – – – – –

Congress: Have You Read Our Constitution?
Vote Out All Most Incumbents ✔ote

– – – – – – – – – – – –

Congress: Why All the Arrogance?
You Work For Us
Vote Out All Most Incumbents ✔ote

– – – – – – – – – – – –

What You Promised While Campaigning
Should Be What You Do When Elected
Vote Out All Most Incumbents ✔ote

– – – – – – – – – – – –

Congress: You Have Failed Us
Vote Out All Most Incumbents ✔ote

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 (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.

Update: (8:15pm, Halloween)

Here’s the message on the sixth trailer:

America does not need new parties
It needs new candidates
Vote Out All Most Incumbents ✔ote