not my fellow citizen

While I am driving, any kind of pro-Bush propaganda plastered on a car bumper forces me to restrain myself from easing my right foot off the brake and pounding the gas pedal. After all of the ways that Bush has harmed America and the world, I find it infuriating that people are still supportive of him.

There is another type of bumper sticker that tempts me to purposefully crash into the car in front of me. Any variation of "Bush Is Not My President" makes me seethe. I despise those stickers.

I assume that drivers proclaiming "Bush is not my president" are not simply citizens of other countries who want to gloat that they have not been cursed with such a humiliating leader. "Haha! I got Angela Merkel and you got some bumbling fool from Texas!" I assume that cars with these bumper stickers are driven by Americans, other voting citizens of the United States of America who are trying to express their frustration with the current administration. I sympathize with their ire, but I abhor their attitude.

Not your president? Not your president? He is your president. You might not like what he's doing. You might think he's a vile undemocratic criminal murderer, but he is your president. He is your representative. He represents America. If you are an American, he represents you.

I have a great deal of respect for Al Gore's concession of the 2000 election to George W. Bush. In the act of conceding defeat, Gore expressed his love for America. He challenged the law, and when he had exhausted the recourse made available by the Constitution, he admitted that George W. Bush was his president--our president.

I think the reason those stickers really bother me is because I know that the other driver and I probably have fairly similar attitudes toward Bush. We're both exasperated and ashamed. We're tired of seeing the Constitution torn to shreds. The difference between me and that car ahead of me is that I think it is a patriotic duty to recognize that George W. Bush is my president. He and his gang of evildoers might not respect the Constitution, but I do. I'm an American, and I need to do whatever I can to hold him accountable to preserve, protect, and defend that Constitution.

Next time I feel tempted to punch the gas, I should get out of the car, knock on the window, and invite the driver to be my fellow citizen, explaining that if we work together, maybe we can make a change. To be my fellow American, though, requires recognizing our current president. George W. Bush is our president.