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Dogs That Do Not Bark
In November 2012, I learned that times had changed and that I no longer knew my country. I could not believe that, after what he had done to the US, my compatriots would re-elect Barack Obama — and I was wrong.
This year, I could not believe that Donald Trump would get the Republican Presidential nomination. He was not, to begin with, a Republican at all. He did not embrace the agenda Republicans at least pretend to support. And, let’s face it, he has not lived his life in a manner that anyone with a moral sense and aesthetic taste could approve. Anyone who is surprised at the remarks he made to Billy Bush has been wearing blinders. No one of his stripe, thought I, could get nominated. But, once again I was wrong.
Nor, earlier this year, could I believe that the Democratic Party would nominate Hillary Clinton for President. She was, I knew even then, a corpse. She had no pulse. Had you told me that Bernie Sanders — who is one of the few Democrats who more nearly resembles the living dead than Hillary — would be her only serious opponent, I would have guffawed. Tell me another, I would have said. Yes, I was wrong.
I expected Scott Walker to be a serious contender. I figured that Martin O’Malley — the only Democrat of any consequence who has not already in effect passed on — would emerge. I was wrong again. Neither of them got anywhere.
So there is one thing that I know. I know that I do not know what is going to happen — and when I look at the polls, count bumper stickers, and keep a record of the yard signs that I stumble across, my certainty grows that I do not know.
The polls suggest that Hillary will win — but not Rasmussen and not the LA Times.
I have yet to see a Hillary bumper sticker, but I have seen only one such Trump sticker. I have seen three Hillary yard signs and more than fifty Trump yard signs. And look: I have been all over. Texas, upstate New York, Silicon Valley, and Michigan north of Lansing. And get this: I saw more Bernie Sanders signs than Hillary signs, and I am talking about the last month.
It is positively eerie. It is as if no national election is going on. Let me be clear. I have seen lots of yard signs pertinent to local elections, next to none regarding any Congressional race, and just a few pertaining to the Presidential election. It leaves me wondering whether on the second Tuesday in November anyone will show up.
Let me add this. The Trump tapes are the talk of the news. But this talk has had no effect on the polls. It is as if no one really cares about the old codger’s trash talk.
There is this that may favor Hillary on 8 November. She has a get-out-the-vote operation that ought to be worth a point or two. There is this that may favor Trump on 8 November. Ronald Reagan used to outdo the polls by ca. 5 percent. There were lots of people who voted for him in every election he ran who would not admit it. Could the same be true for Trump?
Add this. There are people who love Trump. Never mind the fact that I think them mildly unhinged. They do exist, and they are numerous. Is there anyone who loves Hillary … apart from embittered feminists (but I repeat myself) of a certain age. It may be hard to get people to turn out for a person as malicious and unpleasant as she is.
If I were a betting man, I would bet on her — which suggests that she might lose.
Published in Politics
Same story here. Reno is pretty “blue” by Nevada standards (owing largely to the influx of Californians over the past decade). Even so, I remember seeing a lot of Romney yard signs this time four years ago. Now? Plenty of signs and stickers for local races, but I’m not seeing anything at all related to the presidential campaign.
I did a double-take today when I saw a “Trump/Pence” sticker on a beat up Oldsmobile at my grocery store parking lot. I think it’s the first one I’ve ever seen.
Ditto on the yard signs. In Houston, I have only seen one yard sign for a presidential candidate, Gary Johnson. I saw a Clinton/Kaine bumper sticker on a car at the local pool, and it startled me. I had to process for a moment that someone actually stuck one of those on their automobile they paid for. Maybe it was a magnet? I have seen one or two Trump bumper stickers, but not recently.
I don’t drive much through residential neighborhoods in Henderson, so I haven’t noticed anything one way or the other about yard signs. I have seen some stickers on cars; the only ones I can clearly remember are Trump stickers.
I like my vehicle too much to ask for keying or firebombing by putting my guy’s name on the bumper.
That’s like a bigfoot sighting, did you snap a grainy photo as it drove away?
I’ve seen about 25 bumper stickers for him and 3 for Clinton but I’m in the sticks at times.
Uh, is that near Catsup county?
Paul, I share your sense of bewilderment. It’s such a strange thing to learn that you don’t know your own country well enough to explain what’s happening, no less be confident that you can predict what will happen next.
I’ve been thinking about turnout these past few weeks, and with such high negatives for both candidates, I’m guessing turnout will be relatively low, despite Hillary’s appeal (for some), in terms of being a female candidate.
I live in Charlotte, NC – I’d be careful about trying to read the tea leaves of yard signs and bumper stickers. A lot of what you see depends on where you frequently drive. In other words, it’s a small, fractional sample size. Drawing a conclusion from it is a bit of a reach.
But it does confirm my bias, at least, in terms of these markers indicating low turnout. That’s why I like it.
This is what it looks like when a popular choice has formed against the status quo, and the status quo intends not to lose no matter what.
It is eery.
Take it the other way around: if the government and its media organs had decided to continue regardless of the people, what would it look like?
If the Democratic apparatus, media, organized interests, the DOJ, the regulatory apparatus, IRS, FCC allow it. Every step will be scripted, missteps buried, Republicans will be frightened by extreme reactions out in flyover country, by orchestrated attacks from the media and will want to show they are not bad people. The Democrats will act like Democrats and the Supreme Court will be nullified. Obama has been a total disaster, inept, crooked, the economy flat, the health care system broken and deteriorating, the world in flames and he has a 52% approval rating. The Democrats will have 4 more years to prepare for fraudulent elections. Republicans may be irrelevant.
I live in western Washington an a very blue area. I have seen no Hillary signs, one Hillary bumper sticker and two “Hillary for prison” bumper stickers. So far no Trump bumper stickers but one very large yard sign (it has since been vandalized) and one Gary Johnson yard sign. I still see a few Bernie and Obama bumper stickers. I think that Trump stickers/signs are few due to the know threat of vandalization. I see a lot of local race yards signs though. I travel a lot (about 180 days a year) all over the country. I see about the same thing.
I’ve seen more Johnson signs by at least 4:1 compared to the other candidates. From my non-political facebook friends I’ve seen what seems to be a lot of resigned settling for Johnson because only the very partisan or insane actively want either of the major party candidates. The people I know who are culturally democrats (those for whom the brainwashing took that Republican=evil) are voting for Clinton unenthusiastically and only to keep Trump from winning because he is exceptionally scary. To them he’s dumber than Bush was characterized and more dangerous than Reagan’s caricature.
Where I live, Georgia, we’ve gotten pretty used to sitting in a comfortably conservative surrounding. Georgia has not gone blue since Bill was first elected in 1992. In 2012, the county in which I live went to Barack Obama, the first democrat to do so since Carter, and I’m pretty sure FDR was the last one to do it before that. What once was a deeply Republican & conservative county has now become a town with Democrats being the highest ranking officials. I say all that to paint the picture that by all trends, Hillary should win here. But I’ve yet to see a single yard sign for her, & only a few bumper stickers. I see more Bernie stuff than anything. There are a few Trump signs around, but they sit in the yards of those folks that have been here since we had dirt roads & they just won’t ever leave. All in all, it is ironic to me that my town will probably go in a favor of a presidential candidate who on the surface, wouldn’t seem to have any support here.
Having myself gone through this thought process a long time ago, here’s what I think you’re not understanding about why Obama got re-elected.
Presidential elections are generally decided primarily by a small band of voters that have no real understanding of politics, history, or economics: the “undecided” voters. Most of these people vote primarily based on how casting that vote makes them feel. It’s as simple as that. They’re largely uninformed, and their understanding of politics is limited to what they’ve absorbed from the popular culture and social media.
They didn’t understand what Obama had “done to the US”. They just liked how voting for him made them feel.
My sister has been on the back roads of MD, WV, PA, OH, etc. and has seen the same – plenty of Trump signs – no Hillary – with the latest polls, I may be chalking it up to Democrats are too cheap to buy yard signs?
I agree with Paul Rahe – this election has been completely nuts – the choice of candidates, the further division of the country, the intensity of the ugliness, not to mention the scandal and corruption that has been exposed – if Trump has been good for anything, it’s that this has exposed what has been hidden.
I think we’ll all have to get back to living as completely as we can, being grateful, and standing up for what we believe, no matter the pushback or outcome and stop letting these miserable people steal our peace and joy in life.
San Antonio here. Since January, I’ve seen one Bernie sticker, four or five Hillary for Prison stickers, zero Trump stickers/yard signs, and one Hillary yard sign in our neighborhood that was either stolen or withdrawn out of shame.
Here in central Maryland (pretty rural, or as rural as you can get and still be commuting distance to DC), I have seen zero Hillary signs. Lots of Trump signs up until about a week and a half ago, but tons of them have come down (whether it was the weather, someone taking them, or a political change of heart I cannot claim to know). Now I see mostly school board election signs.
Exactly, but Trump also seems to understand that voters decide based on emotion first and pick facts and arguments after. It is unfortunate that the first Republican candidate to figure this out (Democrats seem to have known this all along) happens to be a handsy real estate developer/casino operator/beauty pageant owner/reality TV star with no governing experience who thinks Sadaam Hussein was a bad guy but admired his killing of terrorists and interior decor.
@wardrobles
Trump admired Sadaam’s interior decor… Priceless!
Here, lots and lots and lots of signs for down ticket offices. A few choice spots have the Trump signs in the mix. When I drive into Minnesota, I see a few Hillary bumper stickers, but I still see more old Obama ones.
A Republican 2 counties over told a story that he was out erecting the larger signs on high visibility properties and at one of the most reliable was told he could put up the Ron Johnson and other down ticket signs but not the Trump one. Then as he walked away, the landowner called out that he was welcome to cut the sign in half and just post Pence.
So is the question, “What if we held an election and nobody came to vote?”
The situation here in Northeast Alabama seems to be, according to my own un-scientific observation, parallel to what the rest of you have reported.
I have seen no Clinton yard signs, no Hillary billboards, and only two Hillary bumper stickers. On the other hand, I have seen only a few Trump bumper stickers and a few Trump yard signs but many reports (on the Facebook neighborhood security watch group) of Trump yard signs being stolen. Young people are the suspects, in most instances.
My wife reports that “steady stream” of people are stopping by our downtown Republican Hq. and gladly paying the $10.00 donation requested for yard signs.
I know few Hillary supporters, other than a few members of our Episcopal parish who are in the thrall of the teachers’ unions. (There is another, younger parish in the County and it is there, I suspect, amongst the far more liberal set that any real Hillary support resides.) I have found no visible Hillary support in the Baptist and Methodist churches, where the parsons seem uniformly pro-Trump..
Other than the few louts who make trouble, there is no enthusiasm apparent among the Democrats and but a good deal felt amongst Republicans.
Utah is neither Trump nor Hillary territory. Not surprisingly, I’ve seen one Trump sign and no Hillary signs.
I’ve have seen two billboards, both for Johnson-Weld.
This election appears to be taking place in an alternative universe.
Will I wake up soon and find that this has been an opium dream and that Rubio is 15 points ahead? I hope so.
Here in one of the three actively contested purple states, NC, we are SWIMMING in bumper stickers and signs. I’d broadly describe it as thus: funny pro-Trump bumper stickers, i.e., “Hillary for Prison, 2016” variety are common, and then the mix of local races. LOTS of local race signage everywhere. In Durham — no surprises — tons of Hillary and Democrat signage.
Durham loves to clearly and visually demonstrate her fealty to the Democrats, usually repugnantly so. Their “Keep Durham Dirty” slogan is popular with the local libertines. It strikes me as juvenile, but the conservative’s opprobrium, is the reaction they want, right?
More Trump signs have popped up around my south-central Michigan town in the last week or so, including some largeish roadside ones (not billboards, though). A few more Hillary yard signs have appeared, though not nearly as many (I’ve seen maybe five or six total).
The Democrats are doing a full-court press in local and state elections in this part of southern Michigan; those yard signs have multiplied like weeds. The local GOP seems to be taking things for granted, which seems counterproductive to say the least (though not surprising).
A car repair place here in town posts funny sayings on their signboard out front; when I drove by last week it read “30% discount on removal of 2016 presidential election stickers”.
I’m sorry I didn’t get a picture!
Someone should produce a bumper sticker saying ‘Keep Durham Delusional- Vote Democratic.’
Is there any statistical collation to bumper stickers and signs and how people vote in regions, I really don’t think there is? Plus they are pretty worthless advertising because everyone pretty much knows who is running.
Here in the heart of liberal Seattle, my neighbors are 99% silent on the election. They were enthusiastic about Bernie, but now they’re all depressed. The atmosphere here can be summed up by what I saw two days ago — diagonally plastered over a blue Bernie bumper sticker on a Prius was a white bumper sticker that said, “Well, all right. Hillary 2016.”
No matter who wins the election, they will not have popular support. They will not have a mandate. They may not even get a honeymoon, except from the press who elevated them.
If only we could carry on without them.