What does a republican look like?

I had a great bumper sticker on my last car. It read “Republican women make great leaders… you’re following one now”

Even though I live in Southern Maine amongst millions of Kerry, and now Obama stickers, I received relatively few comments about the unusual display of conservatism, and any comment was usually preceded by asking if it was my sticker—as if making sure that someone hadn't put REPUBLICAN GRAFFITI on my car. Admittedly, there were times when, if the asker looked like they might be secreting a rock or some other missile, I simply said that it came with the car when I bought it used. Which is not a lie—it was on the car when I bought it from my mother.

Once, an elderly woman was walking past my drive with her old, graying black lab, and she stopped me and asked if that was my sticker on my car. Confident I could outrun the aged, drooling dog, and not seeing any clubs or rocks in her other hand, I said Yes. It was my sticker, on my car. “Really!” she said—obviously disappointed in my political affiliation “because you don’t look old enough to be republican. “