Wellstone is dead, get over it

"Wellstone is dead, get over it" is a phrase which appeared on bumper stickers shortly after the death of Senator Paul Wellstone.

Commentary

In a Boing Boing comment, Karl Jones observed:

“Wellstone Is Dead – Get Over It” bumper stickers appeared here in Minnesota following the assassination death of Paul Wellstone.

Red white and blue, those bumper stickers. Professional print job, not a cheap home-brew. They showed up right after the crash, real quick – something like the Feds showing up at the crash site, one might say.*

(*Okay, not that quick – not like they were printed in advance. But quick: someone saw a chance to vent their gleeful hate at a profit, and went at it with a will.)

Update: On reflection, I retract the phrase “gleeful hate” – that’s me projecting, and worse it’s not the projection I really feel, which is this:

Imagine a schoolyard bully, a tough guy who intimidates weaker boys. (I was a weaker schoolyard boy, in my day, but that’s neither here nor now.)

Now imagine a weak boy of strong moral fiber who works hard, overcomes adversity, and becomes the school valedictorian.

It somehow works out that the bully, despite plenty of tough-guy talk and the occasional scare tactic, never gets the chance to actually hit the little fucker who’s getting so much attention from teachers and guidance counselors (read: liberal society) and, yes, girls.

One night after the big game, there is a car crash, and the weak boy is killed.

Thus vindicated, the bully prints and distributes “Liberal is Dead – Get Over It” bumper stickers, that he may imagine himself punching his remaining enemies in the gut.

Fiction cross-reference

• Gnomon algorithm
• Gnomon Chronicles

Nonfiction cross-reference

• Paul Wellstone (nonfiction)

External links:

• Comments @ Democratic Underground