We are not permitted to place political or “social” signs anywhere on campus where they may be seen from the outside, including in the windows of the ranch home in which we live. The official justification for the prohibition is that allowing such signs would jeopardize our community’s non-profit status.
As I have been riding my bike through those surrounding neighborhoods, I’ve kept an informal tab of the signs in their lawns. Trump signs made a showing months ago (some had never come down!), and gradually have continued to increase along with other Republican party signs. Willoughby is an overwhelmingly Republican community, so that is no surprise.
More recently, Democratic party signs have begun to appear. There were not many Biden-Harris signs up before the party changed its ticket. Now Harris-Walz signs are beginning to show, still in the minority, but enough to lift my heart as I pedal by.
“Down-ballot” candidate signs are joining the fray. Bernie Moreno signs supporting his run for U.S. Senate are now being countered by Sherrod Brown signs as he seeks to hold on to his seat. Local and statehouse signs are in abundance, as well as Ohio Supreme Court signs. So far I’ve seen no signs related to the November ballot issue that would amend the Ohio State Constitution to reign in partisan gerrymandering, but I expect them to begin appearing soon.
It is a wondrous thing to ride slowly down an American street and ponder those signs and to try to imagine the people who might live in the houses that display them. I suspect none of the usual partisan stereotypes fits most of those residents.
I also wonder how neighbors with competing signs are getting along with each other. Political yard signs allow you to announce your preferences without directly confronting your neighbor with it. I suspect many of us like to display signs not only to influence others (which they may or may not do), but to take our stand in a relatively safe way.
I write “safe” because there’s little evidence people actually attack or try to harm neighbors or the property of neighbors with whom they differ. Neighbors may acknowledge their different perspectives without discussing them, or they may decide not to talk to one another, at least for a while. It’s an old tradition: I will let you know where I stand, but I want to keep my telling you one step removed from an actual interaction with you. I think that’s okay.
I also think it’s okay not to have a sign at all in your yard, which is true of the vast majority of yards in these neighborhoods. The private relationship between a voter and their ballot is not up for debate.
Riding my bike past all those signs makes me a little sad and a little angry, because posting them is a right that my retirement community is intent upon denying me. I may or may not choose to hang a sign in my window, but knowing I cannot do so deprives me of a liberty I’ve assumed for my entire lifetime.
As I said, the official reason for the sign prohibition is our community’s tax exempt status. Several of us believe this is as bogus argument: a sign in the window of the house I inhabit is obviously a statement of my position, not the position of the owner of the community itself.
Another justification that has been suggested is that our administration wants us to be one big happy family enjoying our retirement years in tranquility and harmony, safe from the decisions and divisions that troubled our lives up until this time. It’s as if being old means we can no longer make our own decisions about how much difference and challenge we can stand, as if we need kept safe from feeling anything unpleasant or controversial.
Then, there’s marketing. It has been reported that there was at least one incident a few years ago (when signs were still permitted on our windows) wherein a prospective resident was turned off on us by them. I don’t know if it was political signs in general or signs for particular candidates that soured them on us.
I can understand that happening given reports that some Americans are choosing what state they will live in at least in part according to the political leanings of that state. On the other hand, political signs in our windows demonstrate this is a community that is alive and passionate about things that matter, things we are not somehow too old to concern ourselves with.
In an time when each party is out to convince the electorate that a victory by the other party would end our democracy (if not our country itself), political signs in yards are reassuring. Americans can still state their preferences freely and openly and, I continue to hope, safely. We are still one nation, often quietly seeking to influence one another but always committed to living together, no matter who wins our elections, and no matter how old we are.
And yes, even senior citizens are still citizens!
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