I’m not much of a bumper sticker person, but I do have one small decal on my car that was a gift from lovely Ronnie. It’s passive aggressive, I know, but taxpayer money didn’t fund it. And it isn’t my license plate.
Indiana has among the largest numbers of these group sponsored vanity license plates last I heard, and they really do run the gamut. BUT you have to pay for your vanity plates, whether or not you “Support the Troops” or “Save the Whales” or whatever other socio-political commentary you plan on making from the butt-end of your car. Now a new move by the Indiana government has made it easier to proclaim yourself a believer on your drive to the mall.
It’s so cloying I don’t know why I haven’t written about this before, because it’s quite possibly one of the most irritating, artificial political conduits one can imagine: the state-sponsored faith-based license plate.
Indiana’s new “IN GOD WE TRUST” license plate seems to be popping up all over the place; a reported 250,000 have been bought by Hoosiers since January of this year.
Unlike other specialty license plates, however, this particular banner represents the only Indiana plate expressing a unique point of view for which you DO NOT pay an extra charge.
The state of Indiana provides over 75 specialty plates, each representing a variety of ideas, causes and institutions that any member of our state’s population may choose to support.
According to the BMV, specialty plates are available for an additional “group fee determined by the organization sponsoring the license plate.” And “group fees” are paid solely by vehicle owners who associate themselves with the sponsoring group.
But the “In God We Trust” plate breaks these rules, creating a new category of plates in Indiana. “This plate is an alternative to the regular license plate” but “There are no additional group fees to pay at time of purchase.”
Thus when you go to the DMV and buy a regular ol’ license plate for your car, you get the regular plate or the one pictured above, no additional charge necessary.
Now I have exactly no expertise in constitutional law, but methinks if this were challenged it would die. License plates have no tradition of using the motto like money and courthouses and other state intitutions do, and as such can’t be tied to similar historical tradition. (That’s my case, judge.) The only thing that offers the state a loophole is that the motorist gets a choice — believer of God, or one of those other people.
H/T Blue Indiana
I saw a pretty sweet fish thang the other day. It was one of those fish, but when you got up close, it had little feetsies and said inside the fish, “Darwin.”
I wonder how many of those quarter million plates are obtained as a result of the fact that Indiana’s default license plate is really freakin’ ugly.
So you can have the slightly more attractive God plate on your car for free…. But wait, there’s more!
For the low, low price of $20, you can Support The Troops And let everyone know, patriot that you are, that you’re willing to pay whatever it takes to get a license plate to remind them of that. America, fuck yeah!
Here’s what I was talking about, by the way. Maybe they’re more common than I had realized.
“slightly more attractive God plate”??????
It ain’t even pretty.
Plus there’s something Orwellian about juxtaposing the American flag with God and slapping it on the back of your gas guzzler. In other news, I bought an Orwell book last weekend.
Finally, a way to tell who is Christian and who isn’t in Indiana…
So if you don’t put that on your car, does that mean you are going to hell? Hmm… Well I am in trouble then!
(Seriously it is too blue, what were they thinking? Oh wait…)
I want a really snotty Christian plate, like a picture of the earthquake in Bam, Iran a few years ago with the slogan “In the Wrong God They Trust.”
Norb: I lol’d.
My friends and I have been griping about this for a while now, too. Especially over at the news office. The topic of… either debate or just plain outrage (well, more outrage) is if something a friend of mine said is actually true. She said when she went to replace her plate, she had to explicitly *ask* for the regular default plate, because at the Evansville branch she was at, they didn’t display it or tell her outright that she had an option other than the Godbag plate. (!)
Has anyone else encountered this, anywhere else in the state? Mine expires next month, so I’ll see what the situation is like in my home county soon enough.
Oh, and I’m alerting the EIC at my school paper that a little undercover reporting is in order to see how many branches are pulling this crap, if it wasn’t an isolated incident on my friend’s part. (Given the general attitudes of Evansville folk, I doubt it’s isolated.)
I must admit that I thought about it when I renewed on March 15. I decided I needed to sacrifice and keep my current plate to avoid ‘third commandment’ complications.
Heraclitus (Jeff), I have one of those. A friend picked it up years ago on a trip to California. I haven’t dared to put it on my car for fear of it being ripped off. I sits on a windowsill in my (home)office.
I’m glad you posted about this (before I could!). I joked to The Partner that when we renew our plates in June we should get one. “Fuck no,” was his reply. I said, “Come on! It’ll be an awesome joke! We can blend in better that way. Plus, when they see the Planned Parenthood sticker, it’ll throw them off.” He still won’t budge on the issue.
I think it’s FUCKING BULLSHIT that my taxes are paying for a godbag plate. I hate Indiana.
But, as Marked Hoosier pointed out, at least we can easily identify them now.
To add insult to injury, the roughly $3 cost of each of those plates is paid for out of the state highway fund. I guess I’ll be praying to God to get road repairs done from now on. There was also a rumor (posted by takingdownwords) that some license branches are just handing out the God plates instead of the regular ones without asking which you prefer. I almost want that to happen to me so that I can raise a fuss.
I’m not entirely sure a challenge would be successful, given the fact that “In God We Trust” appears in courtrooms and on coins.
My favorite special license plate is the one for Washington, D.C. which says, “Taxation Without Representation.”
There are similar plates in Ohio ($10) and Alabama ($1.25 in county fees), but as far as I know, Indiana is the only one that gives it away without any additional cost.
Bethany–I do know of someone who was handed an “In god We Trust” plate and was told that was their only option. Needless to say, they didn’t raise a fuss, took the plate, and started attending church. Poor thing…
On the new In God We Trust license plates. What does the two letters stand for? On the old plates the prefix stood for the county, but I have seen different letter prefix’s all purchased from the same license branch.
Had to renew 2 plates recently. I can’t verify the conversation word for word but I ask specifically if any other plate was available without extra cost and they said no. I just got the stickers for my old plates instead.
I live in Indiana and those plates are everywhere- especially in the rural areas. My sister in law had to buy one for her first car because that was the only plate they had. Yeah, they were “out” of the normal Indiana plates. So she could either wait two weeks for them to get more or just go with the god plate. So, being a teenager, she settled for the “In God We Trust” plate. She said she feels a bit dirty because of it.
I have an environmental plate for my car, it costs 50 dollars extra, 15 for a “special plate” fee and 35 bucks to support wildlife reserve programs in Indiana. Every other special plate costs 15$, if Christians can get a special plate free that expresses their beliefs, why should I pay for mine? This is so discriminatory.
I have been going to the BMV for 30 years, every year we must register our rides. I went today and was asked by the person behind the counter if I would be interested in a specialty plate? Never in my 29 previous visits have I been asked about purchasing a “special” plate. I looked at the girl behind the counter and said “special plate”? She said yes will you be obtaining a new specialty plate? It was at that moment I flashed my ACLU membership card and said “no I prefer the non-denominational plate please”. It was obvious to me that the “State” is pushing these “special plates”. I really wanted to voice my outrage, but thought better and just got my renewal stickers and left. What will be next? Will we be asked to proclaim our belief in a higher power when pulled over by the state police? Just a thought.
I think the license plates are fine as long as they are not forced on people. But a a person of faith, but more liberal, I find the problem more with their association with the religious right than I do with any particular religion. (http://blogs.pioneerlocal.com/religion). There are license plate frames and bumper stickers for evangelism.