My daughter and I have done a handful of long road trips over the last few years, especially after Texas sensibly lifted the most onerous COVID restrictions. For many of these trips we preferred to take country roads; various two or four-lane routes which meandered through miles of Texas back country, hopscotching past small ranches and passing through small towns of varying degrees of prosperity. One thing we often noticed in passing was a scattering of Trump banners, many of them weathered and obviously left over from the 2020 campaign. It was a hard-fought campaign; obviously many Trump supporters out here in flyover country remained sore about the steal. Also rather obviously, residents in rural Texas aren’t worried about random retaliatory vandalism to their property or vehicles by displaying such political partisanship.
Not the case in the suburb where I live; San Antonio is supposed to trend blue – not as deep-dyed fanatically blue as Austin – but slightly blue and tempered with a strong military and veteran retiree presence, most of whom tend conservative. (And half Hispanic by census count, a good few of whom, I sense, are not really all that enamored of current Dem party values: Catholic, family-oriented, small-business-sympathetic, and absolutely hostile towards those who have jumped the queue with regards to legal citizenship.) In any case, blue or red, we’d prefer to live at peace with our neighbors, and not invite trouble by advertising political sympathies on our person, home or vehicle. The last couple of election cycles, about as overt as political display got in my neighborhood was an American flag … which I suspected from random conversations with neighbors was a covert signal of conservative sympathies, but one which wouldn’t excite retaliatory vandalism.
We’ve noticed a change in the last month, or perhaps six weeks – an absolute blossoming of Trump/Vance yard signs, bumper stickers, T-shirts and gimme baseball caps. Every few days we spot another yard sign defiantly staked out; another person in a Trump t-shirt, or a vehicle adorned with a MAGA-associated bumper sticker. This is a rather curious development, considering how very rare such demonstrations of support for Trump or other Republican presidential candidates were in previous years. There are only a pair of Harris/Walz lawn signs, in contrast – and one of them is from the previous presidential campaign with Biden marked out with strips of duct tape. I speculate that perhaps people are encouraged to come out of the political closet by the absolute awfulness of Kamala Harris as a candidate and Tim Walz, the real-life Elmer Fudd. The only thing that duo has going for them is a national media establishment so far in the tank that they must have surface crew pumping them oxygen through a long tube.
Comment as you wish – have you noted more visible Trump support in your neighborhood?
Actually, no. Here in TinyTown™ in NW Wyoming almost all of the political signs are for the local races…city council and mayor, county offices, and state house representatives. Oh, there are a bunch of Trump/Vance signs, and a few people go ‘way overboard on the stuff, but mostly it’s the local races that produce the most signage.
The difference here is that nobody really admits to being a Dem-winger; they all run as “Republicans” for which you can read “Rino”. The major elections here are the Rep-wing primaries; the winner of that goes on to whack the living cr@p out of the Dem-winger in the actual election. Just look at how Liz Cheney was politely offered the door when she revealed herself to be a NeverTrumper, and couldn’t win the primary despite her (tantamount to fraudulent) efforts to re-register Dems as Reps just for the primary. She lost by something like a 4-to-1 ratio. Well, some of the comments and suggestions about her weren’t too polite…
The only exception is the billionaire’s enclave of Jackson over in Teton county; they’re reliably collectivist.
One of my neighbors has a Trump banner on their house. Due to where the house is located, I’d guess that banner might be seen by as many as fifty people over the next couple months- but it’s the thought that counts, I suppose.
Another guy- not my neighbor- has had a Trump sign up for years. Within the last couple months it was defaced. He put up a no trespassing sign and built it back better.
Perhaps more interesting, his neighbor across the street has had signs for demonrat candidates up in the past- but nothing this year, at least so far.
Other than that, a few Trump signs and two addresses with Harris/Walz.
I just did a three weeks’ road trip through the southwest. We saw maybe five, ten signs or flags. ALL of them for Trump/Vance, not a single one for Harris/Walz.
I’m seeing the usual Trump signs in our flyover county east of Oregon’s Cascades. I was in Medford, SW Oregon, and near the People’s Republic of Ashland (home to SOU and the local crazies), but the
Biden-HarrisHarris-Walz signs were conspicuous by their absence. Hmm.I was recently at a campground festival that was swamped in Trump signs in 2016 and 2020, there were a few this year but remarkably fewer than prior years. Driving through two of the Trumpiest counties in the state (both previous elections his vote exceeded 72% of the total, as much as 87% in one county) I still see some lingering signs from 2020, but again many fewer 2024 signs. I have no doubt the votes will be there, but the overt signing is considerably less.
Next week I will be traveling to Philadelphia and some of its suburbs that have been very resistant to Trump, and will take note of the situation there. Two years ago that region despised Mastrianno, and there were Shapiro for Governor signs everywhere.
Here in Yellow Dog Democrat TX, a 2.5 walk around the neighborhood found 8 Harris signs and 10 local race signs. More than I would have expected. No, I didn’t expect to find any Trump signs.
I live in a small city/large town in the mountains of Colorado. Like the rest of the state, we have been infected by California Leftists and it shows in our politics. We usually have a lot more signs up, for both parties, but mostly Republican. This year, not many at all. I do have a neighbor a few houses down who has Trump signs up, and his two flagpoles are flying US colors and the Washington’s Cruisers flag. The cruisers were 7 schooners hired and funded by George Washington before the Congress created an American navy [Hannah, Franklin, Hancock, Lynch, Washington, Lee and Harrison] that commerce-raided Brit supply ships and kept American forces supplied during the siege of Boston. The flag is a green pine tree in the middle of a white field with the words “AN APPEAL TO HEAVEN” in large block letters above the tree. I admit to having the same flags that used to fly regularly on my dual halyard single pole.
I suspect that the paucity of signs and flags does not reflect a lack of interest and patriotism; but rather a feeling from events in recent years that there may be kinetic consequences to expressed beliefs.
Subotai Bahadur
Here in the wilds of Polk Co, Tx., I’ve noticed the Polk Co Democratic Party Hq on 190 looks kinda derelict. Still has a ‘Beto’ sign, that I admit has weathered well.
A little further down the road and across, the VFW hall that is the Republican Hq seems to be jumping. Of course, they also have a live band and dancing on Saturday, so there’s that.
In DeKalb, Illinois, there are a few more Trump signs and flags than there were four or eight years ago, including a few in the student neighborhoods near the university. In 2002 (Illinois senate primary) the faculty ghetto sprouted Obama signs like mushrooms after a heavy rain, and there are Harris signs to be spotted there, if not quite in those numbers.
A couple of local races seem to be more heavily contested, or at least getting yard signs posted, than the presidential.
The county fairs are predictably Trump heavy with signage and flags on offer. In Walworth County, Wisconsin, the Democrat tent, which a year ago had a bannerline worthy of George Orwell, this year had no banners posted at all. I wonder if the idea is to run the presidential ticket as “Not Trump” and not bother with any policy statements.
I live in Montgomery County in Maryland, about 25 miles from the White House as the crow flies. You’d be surprised how many Trump yard signs there are around here. You typically see Harris signs in the gated communities in and near DC where rich white idiots live, oblivious to the harm they’ve done to their country, hermetically sealed away from any heretical opinions. I do a lot of driving, though, and if you venture into the rural counties of Pennsylvania just above the Maryland line, or a bit past Frederick, or into the Virginia country 30 or 40 miles outside of DC you’ll see plenty of Trump signs. What’s more, they aren’t new, but have been there since 2020, flaunting their defiance of our Woke rulers. We have plenty of friends and fellow spirits. We just need to find a way to come together.
No, but we’re already in one of the couple most Trump (and Libertarian) voting areas of Massachusetts. There are effusive Trump signs and flags that simply never came down since 2020. This is tempered by my late landlord’s sign having been stolen from his yard last time, and my next door neighbor’s sign having been taken and left down the street.
In Minnesota, we cons (all 12 of us) are at the standing-around-socking-each-other-on-the-shoulder-with-goofy-grins stage of happiness over how things have been going. Partially on account of the national implications, but mostly for the more local things.
Walz has always been toxic, but six or so years ago he went far left and wowed the urban Minneapolis socialists (not hyperbole) and the Lutheran charity immigrant groups, and so has a nice lock on his gov-ship. In our entire state, we have one-and-a-half large newspapers, and the usual four network-affiliate-plus-PBS TV groups, and they’re almost all simply marketing employees of the state DFL (Dem-Farm-Labor – our socialist version of Dem.)
Because of the news situation, no one ever speaks ill of Walz’s bad qualities. So the new national focus on his record – in all respects – has just been . . . fun! Really fun! So many people in a sort of fog of denial – he did WHAT?
In the national sense, he was an incredibly poor choice as a Veep candidate, for reasons I can skip here. As more things come out (things unheard of by many Minnesotans), he will only be a sea anchor for Harris. A drogue. A hobble. This is not only great for its own sake, but it just seems delicious to us that our media’s whitewashing of Walz was so successful that Harris’s vetting team missed it all, and so it’s our MN media that may have sent the ultimate torpedo into his and her chances.
So we have that fun going for us, too!
We have no illusions that our local poli scene will improve with this election – this IS Minnesota – but at least we get some entertainment value.
bobby b
September 11, 2024 at 5:29 am
he was an incredibly poor choice as a Veep candidate
I’m going to stand by my claim that he was chosen because the power brokers wanted to nuke his possibility as a national candidate later on. They figure Harris losing has the advantage of removing her carcass from the Dem national stage – no one ever runs for President again (with a couple of exceptions) after losing their first run. To find a running mate, I think they looked around and said “Who will be our sacrificial goat?”
Mind you, they will still do some work to try and get Harris/Walz over the line. Because if they win, it still won’t really matter to the presidency – the cabal has that covered. Heck, even a dementia patient can be President when they’re around. So, they win either way. Either Harris wins and they keep her (and Timmy) locked in a closet for 4 years, or they lose and they are both off the Dem chess board forever.
As to signs…
There are some, but fewer than in previous years. It seems everyone is tired, more than fearful of retaliation. But there’s definitely iron in the convictions of Trump supporters when you get them talking.
I live in Los Angeles County. Enough said. Before the 2020 election, in my immediate neighborhood there was one Trump sign and 5 or 6 for Biden. What I find interesting is that, so far, at least, I have seen zero signs for Harris.
Oh, and the house that had the Trump sign in 2020? This time around, my neighbor has Trump signs (plural) in his yard AND a “Don’t Tread On Me” flag. I love that guy.
Far northwest Ft. Worth… we’ve seen a couple of Trump flags on our walks. But then, I haven’t seen many political signs at all. There are no Harris signs. Plenty of American flags out and like you, I take that as a subtle conservative indication. We have an American flag and a “we support Israel” yard flag. I know of only one other house with a “support Israel” yard flag. We didn’t live here in 2020, so I have no comparison, but it does seem like the neighborhood in general is not an advertising neighborhood.
Since we have gone far beyond normal politics and now face Big Brother tyranny, we should expect people to be more careful about exposing their views to their masters.
Wrongthink, newspeak, and thoughtcrime enforcement will do that.
My wife, who pays zero attention to politics, listens to a few podcasts that generally don’t address politics. Some host had on a lefty, RFK supporter, who talked about why they were voting Trump to save the republic. She got upset and wants to go to DC for Rescue the Republic.
I asked her if she was prepared to be arrested. Big Brother is evil.
I live in Winter Springs, FL. Corry Mills is our congressman. this is Trump country… but curious that I haven’t seen any Trump/Vance yard sighs in my neighborhood. Though one person has a Harris sign in their yard.
intensely rural West central Wisconsin:
hundreds of Trump signs, more every day; a handful of signs for the Uniparty candidates.
In Lorain, OH, I see the usual Trump signs – new ones, with Vance on them (Vance is from my state, so he would naturally get some support).
I’ve only seen ONE Harris/Walz sign. Now, perhaps that is at least partly due to the short time since she was installed as Democratic candidate. But most people are not putting signs in their yards, even for local candidates. At least not yet.
I’ve noticed a lot of Trump flags and signs in my little rural town in southwest Ohio. Of course, this area went for Trump in a big way in 2020 too. I’ve seen one sad little Harris/Walz sign stuck to somebody’s porch and all I could think was, “poor, deluded souls”.
I’m flying a Trump flag (click my name to see). I noticed walking home the other day that it is clearly visible from the a-few-doors-down Baptist church parking lot.
Most of the signs here (Rapid City, SD) are local. I haven’t noticed any Harris signs.
Last (R +I/ L) enclave in Brooklyn, NY (see counts from 2020). Which didn’t help us at all. Then came c-19 tyranny, lots of people moved out and about. The only signs I see on my 10-block sq. walk are for local races.
Lessons learned 2020: it’s not how and how many voted that counts, but who does the counting.