I walk a lot around my neighborhood. Two to three walks per day, between one and three miles per walk, 365 days a year, 366 days in election years. In my daily perambulations I’ve noticed that in my twenty to thirty square block neighborhood there are only a handful of lonely yard signs for either major party presidential candidate, an unheard of development. I haven’t even been called by anyone asking if I wanted to put a sign in my yard for someone, the first quadrennial election of my memory in which that was the case.
There’s a substantial body of anecdotal information to the effect that Trump signs outnumber Hillary signs by a wide margin. I think I interpret that differently than the Trump supporters seem to.
I think that 1) neither campaign is spending any money on yard signs; 2) only the very committed are putting signs in their yards this election; and 3) there are more very committed Trump supporters than Clinton supporters. I doubt that any candidate can be elected solely on the basis of the very committed.
This campaign continues to be a mystery to me. What I think is going to happen is that when the dust has settled Hillary Clinton will have been narrowly elected, at least in terms of the popular vote. But anything could happen especially if turnout is low enough and a lot will depend on the mood of a relative handful of voters in six or ten “battleground” states.
I went apeshit crazy counting signs in 2008 & 2012. All that told me, ultimately, was that enthusiasm for Obama was down substantially in 2012, which was born out by the results. This year I have seen very few yard signs, and the signs have all been for Trump. I drove through College Park recently (that’s a pricey white liberal neighborhood) and there was only one Trump sign. The lack of yard signs there was striking, as in recent elections I’d see ten to twenty just on that strip I drove.
Even people that are normally hard core political types think these two are awful.
I’m also noting that political yard signage is down overall. I don’t think the country is happy with its leadership. Perot from 1992, crazy as he was, would win in a landslide this year.
Also, I don’t think Florida is a battleground state anymore. Trump might win it, but it would be a fluke. By 2020 there will be so few white people, comparatively, that the state will be as blue as NY. The Democratic plan for single party rule by population replacement is reaching its end state.
Lincoln is a very liberal town, and my neighborhood racially mixed. I honestly would be afraid to put up a pro Trump yard sign or bumper sticker. I can’t afford to replace broken windows or cut tires.
Oh BTH, if this is allowed, I saw a cute bumper sticker today.
“lifes a bitch, don’t elect one” I take it the pickup trucks owner lives outta town.
‘
I concur with what Gray said in his post. Putting up a yard sign, indicating a political preference (especially if it leans Trump) assures you of potential vandalism. Basically, free speech is tightening in this growing age of PCism and the popularity of social progressive mind sets. Furthermore, IMO, once HRC is elected it will only get worse.
Back in 2012 I congratulated one of the members of my neighborhood for having the guts to put up a Romney sign. Of course, that guy looked like he was packing even when he was doing yard work, so bad mother fucker and all that. (Don’t forget, in 2012 they were saying that Romney wanted to re-enslave black people*. Most of the slanders against Trump have been the same ones they’ve been using since at least 1980.)
OT: Sorry for dropping this in here, but I’m too lazy to look for the last health care post. There’s an interesting chart at the linked tweet, concerning the growth of health care costs. I’m guessing a very similar chart could be done for education in general, and particularly for higher education.
Still OT: And by inference it is a wonderful example of Schuler’s point about many “social welfare” programs being designed to redistribute money from the bottom 90% to the top 10%, and by magic social ills are cured.
I doubt by design, ice. Just boneheaded refusal to acknowledge the natural organizational outcome when financed by other people’s money.
Lot of that going around. Expect more the next four years. Much more.
Ellipsis:
The tendency of bureaucracies to produce fewer outputs per input is something I wrote about in my very first year blogging:
It’s been documented in healthcare and education (where it was first noted in the UK) and I believe it’s a factor in our military as well.
It’s not just governmental organizations that have this tendency. It’s true in every large organization. It’s inherent to bureaucracies.
The difference between, say, education and GE is that education has no pesky competition to force it to become more efficient. So it grows like Topsy.