Virginia is a so-called “purple state,” and even though Northern Virginia is Woke Central (Remember my neighbor who had a giant “Black Lives Matter” display in front of her house for almost three years?), there are plenty of Republican, conservatives and Trump supporters. And yet I have driven my car and walked Spuds all over the area, and I see only Harris-Walz signs. Why is that?
I think it is because Republicans have been intimidated. Professing fealty to the Leftist totalitarians who propped up a puppet President and covered up his disability, then appointed his successor while blathering on about how they were protecting Democracy, is considered proof of virtue. Expressing a contrary view risks being Dershowitzed and cancelled. I see the same phenomenon on Facebook. The vast, vast majority of my friends write the most fatuous, absurd pro-Harris propaganda imaginable, but the conservatives I know are posting pictures of their dogs and talk about movies and TV.
For one side of the political spectrum and one party’s Presidential candidate to have a special status in which anyone opposing them is ostracized and put in fear of social shunning is a totalitarian marker. The Axis has been working toward this for a very long time. Trump is evil, and if you support him, you are evil. The device works: it’s social pressure to conform. A certain proportion of citizens thus isolated will dig in and go underground, which is why I suspect that the polling is badly underestimating Trump’s support. But another group will capitulate to the fear of being seen as a “bad person,” even by people who are providing substantial reasons to judge them gullible, ill-informed, and stupid.
Yes, those pressured into abandoning their genuine views are weenies, but weenies vote.
There are other factors at work, of course. Campaign signs are relics: have you ever heard of anyone who decided who to vote for based on a lawn sign? I regard having a lawn sign promoting any candidate prima facie evidence that the homeowner is a moron, but Democrats have been courting the moron vote for years.
Still, I am convinced that people are genuinely afraid of displaying Trump-Vance signs. After all, the Left has tried to kill Trump twice, and Democrats are still calling for him to be “extinguished” or worse. It involves a lot less risk to vandalize the home of evil conservative who wants to force women into breeding camps while foiling the dreams of all those poor illegal immigrants who just want a better life.
Ethics Alarms 
Cars get keyed when such non-approved signs appear. Happened to us in 2016.
A direct line from Hitler’s thugs beating up Jews….
As a fellow resident of Northern Virginia, I emphatically agree.
If you look online, you see hundreds of videos of Trump signs being stolen, defaced, etc. There are quite a few cases of people being attacked for wearing Trump-supporting attire. I’m sure there is one, but I have never seen anyone take down a Harris sign or a Biden sign. I haven’t seen anyone attacked for wearing a Biden or Harris shirt or hat. That really tells you where the political violence is in this country. I mean I would never remove a political sign I disagree with. I might mock it, but I want people to know where the fools are. I also want to know who to blame when their policies destroy things.
My favorite billboard this year is one that has a big picture of Jill Biden wagging her finger. It says “I want everyone to just STOP IT! He thinks his name is Brandon now!” It was put up in May. I think it is still up.
I live in a heavily-Republican county in an icy-blue state (Livingston County, IL). Plenty of Trump and Trump-Vance yard signs around my town, and a few Kennedy-Shanahan signs. It wasn’t until today that I saw the first Harris-Walz signs, though (2 of them, in a town of approx. 4K pop.). The local Democrats don’t bother wasting time with campaign signs in my county for Presidential races, because they know that it would take something like a 49-state landslide to flip Illinois for Trump.
Catherine McClarey,
You will have to settle for a 48-state landslide, because a 49-state landslide could not flip Minnesota against Mondale in favor of Reagan.
Harris sure locked up Minnesota with her VP pick this time around.
-Jut
Reagan vs. Mondale was the 49-state landslide my political-junkie husband was thinking of. My undergrad college was in Minnesota, but I was in grad school at UW-Madison by the time Reagan was running for President the first time. And my husband convinced me to vote for Reagan’s re-election in 1984.
It’s a mixture of reasons. The left likes to virtue signal, and that’s all such signs are. As you ask, who would actually be influenced by a sign in some rando’s yard? (I might make an exception to this for little-known local candidates.) Studies have already shown that leftists are less tolerant of those who disagree with them (unfriending, etc.). Observation shows they will often resort to violence and disruption.
Even if I could overcome my aversion to political lawn signage on principle, I would definitely be afraid to put a Trump sign on my suburban lawn although Harris signs have sprouted all around the neighborhood like ugly, noxious, invasive weeds. Cars get keyed, mailboxes get trashed, beer cans and liquor bottles get thrown, cats disappear.
Its not the signs, the bumper stickers, the memes, that count. What counts is the voting box. It is there that the names Trump-Vance must appear
“I regard having a lawn sign promoting any candidate prima facie evidence that the homeowner is a moron,”.
Sorry you feel that way. I have a variety of political signage at my home. And yes, invariably I must clean the spittel off my car windows that some coward has deemed to be political speech. I put signs up to show that I cannot be intimidated. Not only do I have signs I wave a Trump flag and an upside down US flag, I have an Appeal to Heaven flag and a Don’t Tread on Me flag.
When Republicans decide they will do what it takes to win then maybe they will. I may not agree with the Left but they have the will to capture and hold on to power I respect their tenacity but not their tactics of demonization and deceit.
Actually those signs have made a difference in the vote for some local races such as the “non-partisan mayoral and council races in which the top 5 vote getters win the election for council and school board because my neighbors who do not know the candidates use my signage as a means to help make their decisions. My neighbors know my positions. Most agree with me, but others may not so they may be inclined not to vote for my choices. The psychology of the signage is that the more signs visible the more likely the undecided will choose that candidate so as to not be in the minority. People like to associate with perceived winners. That is why gangs are popular among the young and the appeal of Taylor Swift.
It will be a sad day for someone I catch vandalizing my signs or property. They will be prosecuted. If vandalism is a problem and it compels you to be silent they have won. Vandalism in retaliation for speech is terrorism. I will not negotiate with them.
Oh, local signs make sense, because they are the only way some candidates get any publicity at all. But who doesn’t know Trump and Harris are running? Now, it the point of your signs isn’t what such things were traditionally made for, but like the flags Mrs. Alito apparently flew, that’s different. That’s defiant, not moronic.
“I put signs up to show that I cannot be intimidated.”
Same, Chris. Same. For the first time in my life I have a political sign in my yard (a second sign as the first one was stolen by a bunch of drunk twatwaffles returning from the bars downtown – all caught on my ringcam.) I’m not trying to convince anyone. My sign is my middle finger to the mainstream media who, in my opinion, is beneath contempt. It’s my middle finger to those – from family to friends – who have spoken to me with dripping condescension when I try to engage in meaningful debate. I’m done and here’s the sign.
The best I can tell is that most Republicans don’t feel the need to publicly virtue signal to all their neighbors as to who they support for President – that’s what ballot boxes are for, it’s also been shown that most Republicans rarely take part in political polls which is another good reason that no one should put any stock in political polls. I think it’s been that way for some time now. Remember, there was a sincere lack of Republican virtue signaling input into the polls going into the 2016 election.
Oh, it is definitely defiance. Ever since USA Today bought our local paper we no longer have a newspaper to express ourselves through letters to the editor and the opinion pages are nothing but progressive thought written by syndicated columnists.
I’ve noticed a quantifiable uptick in Harris/Walz campaign sign theft/vandalism “reports” on neighborsnextdoor (THEY Report-YOU Decide) in the 77 Square Miles Surrounded By A Sea Of Reality
While (IMO) many could be attributed to panicky Madison Lefties engaging in a Jussie Smollettesque Noble Lie kinda thingey, it does represent a distinct departure from 2016 & 2020 when there was an epidemic of Trump Sign Theft.
Even more encouraging? Neighborsnextdoor inquiries about where to acquire Harris/Walz campaign signs are being answered not only with in the dump/dumpster from traditionally deep blue neighborhoods like Dudgeon-Monroe, Elvehjem, Orchard Ridge/Greentree, my own Midvale Heights, and (GASP!) Willy Street, but those answers are (heh!) being upvoted.
PWS
Well, there is one Trump sign in my neighborhood. But it says “Anybody but Trump”. It’s been up since Biden was the candidate, which is more than I can say about the other Dem signs. There have certainly been several that sprang up after Harris was installed.
Funny story. In almost 20 years of marriage, my wife and I never put signs in our yard for any election. In 2020, a Democrat friend of ours – who voted for Clinton, Gore, Kerry, and Obama twice – showed up at our house wanting to put up signs…for Trump. He was fully dressed in MAGA regalia and his truck was decked out as well. All that was missing was the bad comb-over. Our mouths about hit the ground. We couldn’t say no, so he put one up. Our one neighbor told us we were brave…that he and his wife were voting for Trump, but “no way were they broadcasting it.”
As it turns out, all of the neighbors around came and told us they were voting for Trump, but not a one would put up a sign. It was in the front yard until the house went up for sale just before the election, and the worse we saw was 1) someone put a slice of American cheese on it (yum!), and 2) a kid drove by and yelled a two-word obscenity regarding President Trump. That was it.
The apartment we live in now doesn’t allow political signs of any nature, and our new house (where we’ll live full time in three years) is in a county that votes almost 80% Republican.
We do not have any signs in our yard, for several reasons but one big one is this:
My sister would doubtless love to put up a sign for Harris/Walz. However, if she did so, I think she knows I would go out and find a Trump/Vance sign and put it next to hers, which would totally mortify her.
So. Mutual Assured Destruction deterrence that works.
We get along fine, but generally don’t discuss politics.
I think you’d really enjoy Dan Crenshaw’s conservation on his podcast “We Hold These Truths”. The episode is titled: “The Myth of a Divided America”
They touch on just this topic.
The website of the researcher he’s in a conversation with is this:
https://populace.org/research
Really though, y’all all need to listen to this conversation.
That podcast is in regular rotation. I have a drive ahead of me this afternoon and will take a listen. Thanks!
Ack! Your reply reminds me. I owe you an article or two about something I commented a few weeks ago. I got distracted that evening and well. Completely forgot.
Wow. Conversation. CONVERSATION.
Not conservation.
Driving down the interstate yesterday, I saw a car with a Harris Walz sticker on the back and a No Trump sign on the side, you know, “Trump” with the EU ‘No’ symbol imposed over it. I looked at the driver. He seemed to be about my age (73) and perfectly able to own a car and drive it and survive to our age. All I could think was, “How could any seemingly competent, aged, experienced person think a Harris Walz administration would be a good idea? What is wrong with these people?”
Thankfully, I haven’t seen any political signs in my neighborhood this year, including on the lawn of “crazy neighbor lady”, as our (grown) kids call her, who had a Bernie sign out last election cycle. There are usually not many, anyway, but I think I’ll ride the whole neighborhood today (all cul-de-sacs), before we get blown away, and see if this is entirely the case.
Well, the hurricane left us alone, so I checked and found only three signs (in 300 properties)….2 Trump and 1 Harris. One of the “Trumps” was no surprise; we know the owners and had been invited to a couple of (local Republican) candidate meet and greets they held…county commission chair & such. Don’t know anything about the other two. There seem to be way fewer signs, even in the expanded area outside, than there were for the 2022 races.
In my neighborhood, there are multiple Trump/Vance signs, and no Harris/Walz signs. An acquaintance was literally threatened with physical violence for wearing a Harris/Walz t-shirt. Neither party has a monopoly on stupidity.
There should be no controversy over THAT conclusion. But when and how did we get to the point that neighbors couldn’t happily display signs and bumper-stickers for competing candidates and parties without anyone caring or making negative judgments?
(I do think that when a party’s President makes a speech accusing the followers and supporters of the other party’s candidate of being “dangers to democracy,” some ire is justified, no?)
Where on earth do you live, Curmie? Seriously. I can’t imagine that. West Texas? Maybe?
By “that” I mean no Harris Walz signs.
Curmie lives at Mar-A-Largo….
Palm Beach is a really, really goofy place. Heirs and heiresses everywhere. Truly another planet.
East Texas. Louie Gohmert was our Congresscritter until he decided to run for Texas AG (and was pretty well demolished in the primary).
I’ve done signs in the yard exactly twice.
The first time was because there was someone who habitually parked on the street directly in front of my house (which is perfectly okay) sporting a big sign in the back window in support of a presidential candidate that I did not support. My thinking at the time was simply to clarify that this car is not mine even though it was pretty much always parked directly in front of my house.
The second time was for a local mayoral candidate whom I genuinely wanted to win (he didn’t, though it was close) because he, while on the City Council, opposed a very expensive measure that (in my opinion) amounted to nothing more than virtue signalling.
Other than that, my house is where I live and not a billboard for advertising.
–Dwayne