RCL4: Opinions on Gas Prices

This sticker caught my eye as I was scrolling through political bumper stickers. Maybe because it is white on a black background or has a cartoon aspect when most were just a nominee’s name, but the viewpoint was apparent as I looked at it. 

While this sticker shows a specific debatable view, it also endorses a political view, which is why I thought it would be perfect to analyze. When looking at this bumper sticker, What it is trying to portray is obvious. The saying on the sticker reads, “thanks Biden,” and hints at the rising gas prices the United States saw in many areas around the country. 

Now, what is stated is different from what the sticker means. It is not meant to thank Biden but to thank him sarcastically. It implies that the gas prices are too high and would be lower if someone else was in office. 

The cartoon depicts a cartoon person trying to pull the empty gas arrow to full. This expresses the struggles of getting gas at the moment and how the expense was too much for some people’s income to handle. The cartoon allows the bumper sticker to be slightly lighthearted while expressing the person’s views. 

The commonplace and ideology of the American people was that gas prices had risen significantly, but the two political sides claimed it happened for different reasons. The political view of the person with the sticker is related to the pipeline shutdown. Stopping the pipeline inhibits the United States from producing oil for gas and causes us to rely on other countries. 

Biden stopped the pipeline for environmental reasons, and conservatives did not agree with it. This leads to conservative people putting stickers like this on their cars. The ideology of the American people tends to be that conservatives care about foreign relations and not relying on other countries’ goods for the good of the economy, while liberals care about the harm oil could do on the environment.

This topic is political and can be debated by the two sides. People use items like bumper stickers to express their views to other people and try to get a quick message across. I believe this sticker is effective because it has short wording, and the cartoon is easy to understand without being too political or aggressive. 

Bumper stickers show the freedom of speech the United States provides for us, and we should be grateful that we can express our views to the world without repercussions.