It’s Time To Take Your Trump Signs Down

Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash

I live in America, but I also live in a neighborhood. The streets and homes are familiar and comfortable. I could follow the route to my job, the grocery store, my kids’ school half asleep. I bike, I run, I walk my dog past single-family homes, McMansion developments, condominium complexes, and trailer parks.

I see the people who live in these houses at the gym and the park. We wait in line together for our coffee and cross paths at the dentist and doctor’s office. We don't know each others’ names, but there is something familiar about how we’re always dressed like we might get recruited for a spontaneous camping trip.

For years, I’ve seen political signs pop up in people’s yards, like a strange agricultural crop that has a bumper year from time to time. They are mostly blue and red, with the occasional yellow, green, or purple thrown in for good measure. In the good times, these signs feel like a celebration of peoples’ ability and willingness to disagree but live in shared communities, where we pick up trash, keep our yards tidy and look out for each others’ kids.

Most of the time, the signs ebb in an election year and then disappear overnight once the votes are cast. A few might linger, but by Christmas, all you see are blow-up Santa Clauses and snowbanks. That didn’t happen this year, so even today — in January — after a…