We took a trip this weekend, driving 180 miles each way on I-5 through Oregon and Washington State. We kept our eyes peeled for bumper stickers relating to the upcoming election but counted only three for Trump and an amazing zero for Biden.
I’ve never seen anything like this before in the US. (In Europe bumper stickers don’t seem to exist at all.) Just four years ago you could see Clinton and Trump plastered on cars everywhere.
Is this your experience too?
And what does it mean? This election is supposed to be attracting more interest than any in decades; why is it practically stickerless? Is it because there are fewer non-virtual events and less door-to-door canvassing where bumper stickers can be handed out?
Is it because politics has gotten so hostile that motorists are ambivalent at best about expressing themselves in places where they might be vulnerable. Free speech is one thing, but road kill is quite another.
Rural NY – farming area. Few Biden signs in our village, a few more Trump signs. More “Black Lives Matter” signs than either.
Tom:
Nice area. One of my cousins lives there Fred Arnold. When I was working out in Caz, I would go zipping home once a month in my Ion and would not stop for gasoline till I was into Ohio at one particular station which had less costly gasoline. I did a one week seminar at RIT on graphics. I was buying all the graphics for Oscar Mayer at the time. This was kind of a big deal. Caz is Repub primarily and my being a Dem and having half a brain, I could get under their skin. It was only when the wives would begin to stick up for their hubbies that I would back off. They like me and what I was espousing to a point. They understood what was going on.
trump is a jackass who wandered into town one day
I donated $150 to get 5 Biden-Harris masks, 2 bumper stickers and a yard sign. It took 4 weeks to get them but I and my family wear the masks—with mixed reactions— the bumper stickers are on our cars—no road rage so far—and the yard sign is high on a tree at my cottage in Western Wisconsin. There are a lot more Trump signs along the 50 miles of rural roads between the interstate and my place, but on my road there are only Biden signs. That county narrowly went for Trump in 2016 but narrowly went for Evers in 2018. Where I live in Indiana it is hopeless and we are prohibited from displaying any yard signs.
I have setup claymores around the Biden and Harris signs and they are in the weeds.
We put our Biden sign out front, inside the electric fence for keeping the deer from eating every damned thing. Now several of our neighbors put up Biden signs, and, since they’ve been good neighbors, we think even more highly of them. I live in town. The Trump signs are in the more rural areas that rely on government subsidies.
a friend asked me about the number of lawn signs, so i’ve been watching those…the last time i was out a few small Biden-Harris signs showed up…still the vast majority are the large blue Trump Pence signs that obscure the view of the house putting them up…
on one trip, the Biden signs were outnumbered 6 to 1 by the ‘Blue Line Unlimited’ signs, and 3 to 1 by the ‘Proud to be a Husky’ signs…Trump signs have been too numerous to count..
I live in the Memphis area. There are no Biden signs. None. Still. I’ve been driving around looking—saw one Biden sign near downtown. I live almost 30 miles away.
I’ve read in the Nextdoor app that Biden signs are stolen. Repeatedly. Biden supporters seem to know to ‘not engage’. It’s passive/aggressive pro Biden support.
A few more Trump signs have been put on lawns this week, but still a poignant absence of Biden signs.