“Democrats think the glass is half full. Republicans think the glass is theirs.” Yup, that pretty much says it. Where did I find this witty retort? From none other than a small bumper sticker company hailing from Minneapolis, MN, Northern Sun Merchandising.
Just now you may be thinking, “Finding that one must have taken some research or a lucky encounter while sitting in traffic.” If you thought the former, you’re right on. Finding that tag line did take some serious research, but I didn’t do it. Aaron Rudenstine and Olivia Greer did.
In their first book, Actions Speak Louder Than Bumper Stickers, these up-and-coming progressive commentators, take on America’s right-turning political climate in a way that will let you laugh, but won’t let it ride.
Rudenstine and Greer, Harvard and Skidmore graduates respectively, ask us to page through this often hilarious compilation of political bumper stickers, but to do so while smiling with an ironic wince: the coffee-table style book features each sticker complemented by a factoid or two on an adjacent page – factoids that ground the comedy of the stickers in some of today’s most concerning social and political realities.
For instance, accompanying the bumper sticker, “Feminism is the radical notion that women are people,” is the factoid, “The Equal Rights Amendment has been introduced in every session of Congress since 1922, but has not been ratified.”
Agree or disagree with the political opinions expressed throughout the book, the smile and wince dynamic created by Rudenstine and Greer gets your attention.
I can’t tell you if these two twentysomethings will help make up the next crop of Bill Mahers, Al Frankens, Maureen Dowds or Jon Stewarts, but I can tell you that it is exciting to see young blood publishing in the political satire arena.
Actions Speak Louder Than Bumper Stickers fits somewhere between Jon Stewart’s America, the book, and Josh Weisberg’s Bushisms. While not going into the historic depths that America traces for its satire, Actions Speak offers important factual context for its gaffs. At its roots, the work is classic gallows humor. It asks us readers to face the music in a slightly more serious tone than Josh Weisberg’s pill popping pages of presidential misspeaks – pages you have nonetheless got to love for that 5 second, “I gotta be sharper than the President” high.
I asked Mr. Rudenstine, who worked for over a year out of Kerry-Edwards Campaign headquarters in Washington D.C., what the major inspirations were for the idea that became Actions Speak Louder Than Bumper Stickers. He responded, “After the campaign, I was having a hard time reading the news; I was angry. Olivia and I wanted to illuminate current political realties and vent frustration and found it really effective to do so through ironical humor.”
With their first book, these satirists are not out to recreate the universe; they are out to thoughtfully stir the pot. After a first read, the book’s sardonic tone left me asking, is this comedy or tragedy? I was stumped; stumped because I asked myself very much the wrong question – comedy is not exclusive to tragedy. In Action Speaks, Rudenstine and Greer show us the truth of this construction and offer up what can only be understood as comedy within a tragedy. The bumper stickers are the comedy, conceived as brief respites for the some of the more unfortunate aspects of today’s political landscape covered in the pages of Actions Speak.
I, for one, look forward to hearing more from these two, and in a larger sense, the generation of progressives they represent. This is my generation and its time we step to the plate.