Political signs are coming down.
There is a tiny story behind every lawn sign. Rick Millward has his. He is a songwriter, music producer, and musician. He lived and worked in Nashville and retired in Medford, Oregon. He performs in local wine venues and produces and distributes collections of original songs.
Guest Post by Rick Millward
I came home from running errands to find that my Hariss/Walz sign had been torn down from the tree where I had nailed it. Someone had taken the effort to jump up and rip it off, which was no small feat since it was about seven feet up off the ground.
Putting up a yard sign during election season is an American tradition. It’s patriotic, a celebration of big D Democracy. These signs are a way to participate. They provide gentle persuasion, simple advertisements that ask our neighbors to share our views. And when the election is over, just like after a party, we take down the decorations until the next election.My vandalized sign got me thinking about something that had been bothering me. After the 2020 election, lots of Trump supporters didn’t take their signs down. I have a neighbor who has a crude handmade sign in his front yard and it’s been there for the last four years. I was shopping for a house to buy in 2021, and in one instance decided to pass on one, simply because the house next door had a 4 by 6 foot Trump sign on the porch. Trump signs were all over; some had obscenities on them. You’d see vehicles with bumper stickers every day in traffic, not to mention the pickup truck drivers who flew Trump flags, like some Third World resistance fighter.
I consider it boorish. It was inspired by Trump's “stop the steal” rhetoric. Republicans saw political advantage in contesting the election and cynically promoted the Big Lie. We have suffered through four years of allegations of fraud, despite lack of evidence, even so far as to hear today that because Harris got fewer votes than Biden, it must be because of manufactured votes in 2020. The relentless lying and accusations engendered a perpetual state of conspiracy-thinking, despite FOX being hit with a $787 million defamation judgment, Rudy Giuliani being disbarred, and multiple Republican lawyers pleading guilty for making and abetting phony election claims.It’s not illegal to keep your yard sign up. It’s the epitome of free speech. I admit I thought about leaving my sign up in protest, but since someone took it down for me I decided that that impulse was ill-considered. This election is over; Democrats didn’t win, but it was close. We should take some comfort in that, regroup, and carry on. The stakes are still the same. The rights of women, minorities, LQBTQ, and others are still under assault and America has obligations to the rest of the Free World. I still care, but I'm taking a brief break from politics.
So sure, tear down my sign. When I get re-engaged, I'll get another.
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6 comments:
Our founding fathers enshrined a lot of noble ideals in the documents that formed this nation. Originally the rights they espoused only applied to white male landowners. Throughout our history we have been engaged in a bitter and often violent struggle to expand those rights to all citizens, including Native Americans, Blacks and even women. We are fortunate to be living in a time and place where people of all races and religions can live and work together in relative harmony. MAGA may not like it, but they won’t be around any longer than the Thousand-Year Reich.
Decency and the rule of law have been dealt a blow, but don’t be discouraged. We may neeed some R&R, but the struggle goes on. As MLK, Jr. said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
If we want to overcome polarization and get this country to a better place, we might want to start by not accusing the people who disagree with us of being Nazis.
Or alternatively, if we really want to foment a civil war, continuing to make accusations like that might be just the thing. But those who are looking to fight that war might want to consider which side has all the guns. 🤷♂️
If overcoming polarization requires that we give credence to the notion that Trump isn’t a criminal, that he didn’t try to overturn the 2020 election, that Jan. 6 was “a day of love,” that climate change is a hoax, that immigrants are eating our pets, etc., etc., then let’s not.
PS: Threatening us with guns doesn’t scare me.
My comment was not a threat directed at anyone; it was advice to not pick a fight you’re sure to lose. It was based on the hope that if we stopped screaming insults at each other, something better than the current situation might emerge.
You would think the side that just massively lost might want to think about different ways to conduct themselves. But then again, maybe some of them are so committed to screaming insults that minor considerations like winning elections just fade into the background. 🤷♂️
With all due respect Michael, “decisive” is probably more correct. Nixon/McGovern in 72 was “massive”. That said, dems do have some soul-searching to do.
There's a huge difference between "screaming insults" and denouncing Trump's criminality.
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