Why Trump signs are mushrooming across the US a year after 2020 election
By: Salena Zito
Trump is the voice of the working and middle class. He’s the hope of the heartland. He’s the symbol of the resistance to the establishment of both parties. He’s looking out for us. The signs, the boat parades, the rallies are our collective way of using a certain finger to tell bi coastal urban secular progressive elites exactly what we think of them. Trump is our outlet to prevent a secularist progressive fascist dystopia from overcoming our exceptional America.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Why Trump signs are mushrooming across the US a year after 2020 election
When Drew and Marlene Proctor left their Jersey Shore, Pa., home to take their three-week trip across the back roads of the country for their honeymoon, they relished different sightings all along their journey.
But one thing remained constant no matter what state, city, town or village they passed through, Drew said, “and that was the amount of Trump signs we saw everywhere.”
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“And I mean everywhere,” he added for emphasis. “They were in wealthy suburban neighborhoods, blue-collar middle class towns. You would see them in farm fields and painted on the sides of businesses. Most of them were either large flags , although plenty of them were hand-painted homemade signs too.”
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In total, the couple traveled through 12 states and logged more than 5,000 miles on their sojourn. I spoke with both Proctors last month as they sat outside a diner, enjoying a burger near Mt. Rushmore in Keystone, SD. As if on cue, a motorcyclist drove by with a Trump flag billowing out the back.
Drew, 47, said people who didn’t vote for Trump and regularly fly over these states might be surprised or even shocked by the show of support for the former president who lost to Joe Biden last fall.
Worse, he said, they might mistake the display as cultish.
“Those assumptions would be wrong,” said Drew, who is a service manager for a European industrial machining company.
Drew and Marlene Proctor on their honeymoon trip in South Dakota. Shannon Venditti for NY Post
“The 2016 presidential election was not about Donald Trump. If people took the time to listen, it was about the dissatisfaction with the establishments of both parties, and I will tell you that was brewing long before he stepped on that escalator in 2015.”
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Marlene, a 43-year-old ER clinician supervisor, nodded.
“Trump was the consequence of people’s sentiments, he was not the cause.”
Strategists and reporters often dismiss political signs as an unreliable way to gauge enthusiasm for a candidate. Back in 2016, as Trump signs abounded across America, experts insisted that polls predicting a Hillary Clinton victory were a better indicator of the result. And yet the Democrat lost to the unconventional Republican in a massive upset.
“Putting those signs up was their way of saying this is the new resistance,” said Youngstown State University political scientist Paul Sracic. “We saw them in places that historically supported Democrats, like here in Trumbull and Mahoning counties, two of the bluest counties in Ohio, as well as blue counties in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.”
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Trump signs in Rust Belt states like Pennsylvania (left) and Ohio (right) show the working class switch from Democrat to Republican is “permanent,” one expert said. Shannon Venditti for NY Post; Reuters
That the signs are popping up again in these same places today “shows the transition from blue to red is permanent,” Sracic said.
In 2020, Trump signs were even more dominant across that US than they were in 2016. And though he lost his bid for re-election, polls that predicted a drubbing were wrong again . Instead, Trump suffered a narrow defeat in a squeaker election.
One year later, voters are still showing their support with the only means they have at their disposal — Trump signs that declare they aren’t going anywhere and their passion remains intense.
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“A Trump sign symbolizes a rejection of the status quo. It is also aspirational, a reminder that we were all part of something bigger than ourselves, bigger than one man, and we are still here,” said Drew, adding that both he and Marlene voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020.
The Proctors’ observations mirror my own. After traveling thousands of miles from my home in Western Pennsylvania to Montana and all parts in between this summer, I saw Trump signs everywhere.
A country store in Maine is still brandishing Trump signs in 2021. Corbis via Getty Images
Whether I was on a gravel road just outside of Hannibal, Miss., or a dirt track in West Yellowstone, Mont., or on a neatly paved tree-lined neighborhood in suburban St. Louis, there were an abundance of signs and flags supporting the ex-president.
When I asked people why they were still putting their pro-Trump feelings on display, they all echoed the Proctors’ sentiments: It wasn’t about him, it was about them. It wasn’t about being unable to let go of his loss or their refusal to accept Biden as their president. It wasn’t about being “left” or “right” either. Rather, it was about insiders versus outsiders — with Trump supporters most definitely feeling like the outsiders.
And, with the midterm elections coming up next year, the Democratic Party should be concerned.
Because, even after Trump’s shocking win in 2016, the insiders on the coasts, who dominate the nation’s culture and media, still don’t understand the people who voted for him.
“And that is OK I guess,” Drew said. “They will, I suppose, understand when the next election happens. There is a pretty good chance they may end up being surprised by the results.”
Salena Zito is the author of “ The Great Revolt: Inside the Populist Coalition Reshaping American Politics .”
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In Case Of Emergency Break Glass – Tina Toon
It’s hammer time!
... no mistake.
Toenail fungus is spreading across America, too.
Perhaps better foot and toe hygiene on the art of the sandal wearing hippie liberal left would help prevent that.
Trump's leading strategist, Steve Bannon, the poster boy for toenail fungus, halitosis, crotch rot and a generally foul stench.
In other words, someone you hate simply because they have different thoughts and ideas than you.
Hatred is strong, especially when one has no idea why they hate.
Perrie, how long are we going to have to listen to this kind of idiocy here ?
True love!
On Joe’s Watch – A.F. Branco Cartoon
Mis Trump Yet? Biden would rather check his watch than focus on the dead soldiers he caused. Political cartoon by…
Read More »John, we have been asking her the same about you for years.
Just because you don't like facts is not our problem.
You dont know any facts.
Bannon is a fascist. Maybe he's your kind of guy. He's not mine.
One of the leftist go to is calling those that dare think different than them racist, fascist, etc.
Your post shows how right I am,.
John, again, every time I post something to you, they are facts.
Just because you don't like facts (I mean the ones not made up by liberals), is not my problem.
Your post shows that you don't know what fascism is.
Oh yes I do. Biden and the democrat party are the face of American fascism.
Another fraudulent comment
Having myself and my comments attacked by the left here is a huge badge of honor for me.
Every word of this is fricking nonsense. Will America ever wake up? I have my doubts.
The truth has always been something hard for the political left to accept and understand.
The truth is a foreign concept to the political right, the purveyors of "alternative facts".
The rage and hatred against what they call their "domestic political enemies" is poisoning the minds of the Trumpist cultists. It's no wonder that so many of them are unable to function as normal members of our society.
Trump is our outlet to prevent a secularist progressive fascist dystopia from overcoming our exceptional America. The secular progressives are a complete and total drain upon our society.
Trump is a fascist. There is no question about it. None.
No, he’s not. Biden is the American fascist. Totally and completely and beyond all doubt.
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Comment 4.1.3 is an example of fraudulent extremist propaganda. Of course, no one except the gullible and feeble-minded believe it.
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There is no doubt whatsoever that President Biden is a total fascist. That fact is beyond question.
Biden’s voters live in an alternate far left unreality.
Your denigration of your ideological opposition and their viewpoints is a badge of honor that I /we wear with great pride. Thanks!
... in the beliefs of the feeble-minded.
You should be bursting with pride. Few in history have been worthier of denigration than Trumpist-Fascists. You must wear your Camp Auschwitz T-shirt so proudly.