Sign of the times

I read a lot about politics. I write a little. I do just about nothing.

“I think we need to put up a sign this election,” I said to the wife.

She pursed her lips and a narrowed her eyes.

We live in the outer suburban ring east of Phoenix. The average age of homeowners in our neighborhood probably 50 — most of us moved in during the 90’s when our kids were young. Mostly white, mostly upper-middle-class with 3-6 bedroom homes on 8000-foot lots. Just enough room for a boat or an RV. Pickup trucks outnumber 4-door sedans.

Trump country. The insurrectionist Andy Biggs represents us in Congress. The political signs in our neighborhood compete for who can put “Conservative” in bigger letters (regardless of party).

I knew what the wife meant. She didn’t have to say it.

There are huge Trump flags down the street. There’s a house around the block that has flown a Trump flag every day since 2015. Occasionally, they update it. Trump/DeSantis flew until 2023 — when DeSantis and the flag got unceremoniously dumped.

She’s worried a sign will put a target on the house. “Come egg me” or worse.

If we listen to the worthless pimps of the corporate media, you would think we are all in danger. Hang a flag and someone is going to come to hang you (regardless of party).

In our neighborhood, it would feel safer to put a MAGA banner out. At least most of the people with guns would have your back.

“We gotta do something to stop fascism,” I said. She nodded.

This is pretty much the “least we could do,” so that’s why I picked it.

Two days later Amazon delivered the signs. That night I came home to this:

She even set up lights beneath the signs — just to highlight them at night. Don’t worry, we aren’t wasting electric — the lights are solar.

The Repercussions

While we bravely waited behind our metal security door for the coming “attack,” we congratulated ourselves on our bravery and citizenship.

It’s been two weeks, and the eggs, the comments have not come. We haven’t even gotten any dirty looks.

The only feedback so far:

“I like your signs.”

Peter, the handyman, who lives down the block surprised the shit out of me. For all the pollsters who claim they can pick political party by where you live, your age, your gender and what kind of car you drive — we all had Peter all wrong.

Peter’s a 60-something white man who would physically fit right in at a Trump rally. As he was walking to his pickup truck with his tool trailer he said. “I just don’t understand how anyone can support the felon.”

Later that night, walking the dog, another dog walker came by.

“I like your sign,” she said.

Younger woman. Big dog. Maybe not your typical Trump demographic — but in this neighborhood one can “assume.” She smiled and walked on.

The best comment came from a door to door sales kid trying to peddle window cleaning. As I refused the service, he looked at the signs, smirked and said. “But we are offering a big discount for Trump supporters.”

I almost hired him on the spot, but my cheap bastard instincts overpowered my desire to reward a good joke. (Instead I just stole it for this post).

You know, maybe those corporate media pimps are all wrong (again). Maybe we are not on the verge of a violent civil war. Maybe there is a lot of civility left in this country and we are actually just having an election.

But most of my neighbors are definitely sitting this election out. In 2020, I’d say 10 percent of the houses had some sort of political sign. This year it’s more like 2.

In 2020, I counted 7 Biden signs in our neighborhood (and about 20 for Trump). This year, we are it for Harris, and there’s only 3 for Trump (same 3 that are always for Trump).

There are a lot of American flags. There’s a POW flag. My brother-in-law down the street is even flying his “freak flag,” a green abomination supporting the Philadelphia Eagles.

Maybe everyone is just a little leery. Fear seems to be a tactic to keep all of us from freely saying what we think. Making us all assume, our “neighbors” are automatically against us. For the violent Proud Boys on the right and Antifa on the left — that seems to be the point. Generating fear seems to be what is keeping Roger Stone alive.

But maybe, every one is just sick of the politics. Sick of all the signs, and commercials and text messages and blah, blah, blah that comes from living in a swing state and in a swing county (Maricopa) that “controls” that state.

I have a strong feeling it’s both. People seem to be saying. “I’m sick of this shit, and I just don’t want to get involved in anything that’s going to cause me trouble.”

That’s probably not a bad place to be — as long as we keep that orange traitor and his ilk out of power and get the chance to go back to ignoring elections and not live in fear of what our yard signs may bring in 2028.

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