Yard Signs Don’t Vote… But They Just Might Save Democracy

In this episode of the Keystone Reckoning Podcast, we dive into one of the most controversial and misunderstood aspects of political campaigns: yard signs. Sure, yard signs don’t vote—but they just might save democracy this time around. We break down why these small, seemingly insignificant pieces of plastic carry much more weight than they’re given credit for, especially in the chaotic and high-stakes 2024 election.

We explore the psychology behind why yard signs matter, from tacit endorsements in your neighborhood to standing up against the aggressive intimidation tactics of Trump supporters. It’s not just about showing support; it’s about sending a clear message that we’re not backing down. With voter suppression, threats of violence, and a Republican Party that refuses to play by the rules, yard signs have become a frontline defense in this unprecedented battle for the soul of our democracy.

So, should you put up that Harris-Walz sign? We think so, and we’ll tell you why. Tune in as we unpack the power of yard signs, the hidden psychology of political visibility, and why 2024 is the year these signs could do more than just decorate your lawn—they could help save our democracy.

Learn more about the Keystone Reckoning Project at www.keystonereckoning.com

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Chapters

• 0:31 The Significance of Yard Signs
• 10:51 The Importance of Yard Signs
• 16:45 Navigating Political Yard Sign Intimidation
• 23:56 Podcast Farewell and Future Return

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:32

While it may be true that yard signs do not vote, they do matter, especially in this election, and especially in ways we may not quite understand yet. Hi, welcome to the Keystone Reckoning Podcast. It is Tuesday, october 8th 2024. We are exactly five weeks away from the 2024 election, so things are starting to get real election. So things are starting to get real and, as we start to look at making a plan to vote, some of us have already voted. I actually got my ballot yesterday and of course, I would encourage everyone who can to vote by mail for a lot of different reasons that we'll get into. But the thing I want to talk about today has to do with yard signs and, as anybody that's ever worked on a campaign on the staff and volunteer side knows, yard signs are a blessing and a curse, but more like 90% curse, 10% blessing, because they disproportionately suck up the time and energy of a campaign, because people tend to think they're the end all be all of an election, and it can be really frustrating to those of us that are you know who spent weeks and months election, and it can be really frustrating to those of us that are you know who spent weeks and months you know, in some cases maybe a year, working towards election day, doing all of the groundwork, doing all the hard work, and everybody just kind of rolls in two weeks out and says, ok, give me a yard sign, I've done what I need to do, and oh, I guess it's almost election day. It can get really, really frustrating, and especially when there's always that person or a couple of people on a campaign that are just so yard sign obsessed that you know, oh, my goodness, so-and-so has a sign for our opponent in their yard so we need to go put 15 up in a neighbor's yard. The worst part is when that person is the candidate, and I get it. There's a psychological component because you see your opponent's name all over the place and you don't see yours, and that freaks you out. So you tend to get very defensive and you know you're going out there yourself and putting signs up at two in the morning instead of sleeping so you could do the things you need to do during the day. I will be honest, I maybe have been a little guilty of that in the past, but I can tell you from being on the management side it is absolutely maddening to watch a candidate go down that road. However, yard signs aren't going anywhere. It's just a mainstay of American politics. Fine, they are what they are and the general thought is you know, yard signs don't vote. That's the axiom that gets passed through campaigns as a way to kind of talk those people off the ledge that are obsessed with yard signs. But there is definitely a psychological component to it and to me it's always been.

Speaker 1: 3:08

Yard signs in public places don't matter. Yard signs in people's yards do matter, because it's a tacit endorsement of the candidate that someone is willing to make. Yes, I'll put a sign in my yard that's saying I am letting the world know and my neighbors know, the people that see me every day that I am supporting you. And as a former candidate and elected official, that's a pretty cool feeling. And as a former candidate and elected official, that's a pretty cool feeling. You know, you go, you knock on someone's door, you talk to them. They didn't know you or didn't know much about you when you knocked and by the time you're done, they're like yeah, I'll take a sign. That's a good feeling that tells you you're doing something right as a candidate. So that's all great. No-transcript he's a good guy, she's a good, good woman. Yeah Cool, all right, I'll vote for him. You know, and that typically tend to know. So then, why do signs matter for the presidential election?

Speaker 1: 4:20

I would put out there that, as we've discussed and everybody's talked about, this is a unique election in American political history. I think history will come back and tell us later exactly how unique it was, and God, I hope it was unique because we can't do this every four years I I know I can. This is exhausting and mind-numbing. So it's. It's definitely unlike any election we've ever seen in modern american political history, and one of the big things to me is I'm looking now almost past the election. Let's say I'm looking past it, but in terms of what is a win, right? How do we make sure that Kamala Harris actually takes the oath of office on January 20th 2025?

Speaker 1: 5:10

Winning of the election is one thing, but getting there and doing everything the right way to get what we need is something entirely different. So one of the big components of that is voter intimidation, and we're going to talk more about this in the coming weeks, because I really do believe in looking at all of this, we are heading for a situation where the Republicans are not going to concede even if they lose. There is ample evidence of it. It's everywhere. Concede even if they lose. There is ample evidence of it. It's everywhere. And, most importantly to me and most alarmingly to me, it's coming from states and elected officials, where they actually have the power to mess things up and make things very difficult Again discussion for another day. But it's really becoming to me kind of the filter that I'm looking at this election through as we head into the home stretch.

Speaker 1: 5:56

So the thing about that is is that this is why yard signs matter, because a lot of the right wingers, I believe, are emboldened by the fact that they think everybody agrees with them because nobody challenges them. And I mean it's exhausting to challenge a Trumper because you know it's like spitting into the wind. There's just, for most of these people, there's just nothing that can be said to get them off of the insanity. They believe it's a cult. I'm sorry, it's a cult. You people are in an effing cult, plain and simple. You might not see it, but you know how many people that are in a cult know they're in a cult? None, that's why it's a cult. There's a difference between a club and a cult. You're in a cult Anyhow.

Speaker 1: 6:41

So we are inclined to not engage with them in a lot of ways because it's exhausting, because we don't want the pushback. There's also that mentality of OK, they're going to do what they're going to do. Instead of worrying about them, we need to focus on what we need to do, and that's go out and knock on doors and do the things we need to do to win elections. Nobody's ever won an election on Facebook. I say that all the time and that's all true. All of that is true. But there's also another piece of this, which is if someone on your street has Trump signs up and there are no Harris signs and there is nobody out there pushing back, it furthers their belief that they are right and everybody agrees at them.

Speaker 1: 7:32

And the reason I bring all this up, the impetus behind this entire podcast, is that this was a discussion that was had in my house, in my family. We live in a townhouse development we rent, we don't own, and we are subject to HOA rules, and one of the HOA rules that they've made very clear is that you cannot have campaign signs out until 21 days before the election and you're allowed to have one sign. As someone who's familiar with the law. I don't believe any of that. I've had numerous instances where it's been litigated and you can see that the First Amendment right to self-expression is fairly clear and where this has been litigated it generally says that you can put up signs when you want at your discretion, with the only exception to me that makes any sense being a sign that would be so big, for example, as to block traffic or create a safety hazard. But if I want to put a thousand Trump signs in my yard and it's not bothering anybody and I own my property, I have a really hard time arguing with that. From a First Amendment point of view, ok. But in this HOA, which is notorious apparently for a lot of reasons, at different parts of the development you're not allowed to have window clings in some places and all sorts of craziness. So we have these rules about political signs from our HOA. They are what they are. The question inside our house became do we put up a Harris Wall sign in our yard? Our yard is right by the community mailboxes for our street. It's not a cul-de-sac but it's kind of a turnaround and we've had good relationships with our neighbors over the years, never had any problems. It's a nice little area and we've been there for five years. We really enjoy everything about it and it prompted this discussion about whether or not we should put up a sign and whether and why or why not.

Speaker 1: 9:28

I respect the fact that my politics can be not for everybody. In terms of how I feel about things and my lived experiences, I go out of my way. As someone who has been political my entire life and have worked in politics in various capacities, I go out of my way to not take my politics to anybody for the most part. I know that may seem counter to what a lot of people might expect, but to me anybody that knows me knows how I feel and what I'm about and where my expertise and things lies and if they want to talk to me about it I'm more than happy to have that discussion. Whether they agree with me or not, I'm one of those people. I can disagree without being disagreeable. Yeah, I'm going to try to persuade you, but I know what my limits are and I know how the psychology of how this works and I'm not going to get into a screaming match over something that's pointless. So I tend to not put my politics out there kind of aggressively in people's face and especially being mindful of having moved to a new community on 200, some miles from where we used to live five years ago. It's not the same thing. I've enjoyed to some extent, this anonymity, especially politically, and you know, being just kind of suburban dad at home and then doing my politics where I do my politics.

Speaker 1: 10:51

There's also the concern that you know my wife voice, and she's not wrong, by the way. I want to make it clear I'm not having a spousal argument on a podcast. My wife's politics very closely follow mine in terms of issues and passion, and which is one of the things I love about her and we had this discussion, though, about what happens if we put that sign up in our yard, and we talked about a little bit and we put a pin in it, and I actually intend to revisit it shortly with her and I. We have a few days because before our 21 day sign period starts, so I wanted to really think it through, and in thinking it through, I thought, well, this might be a discussion other people are having yada, yada, yada if you're on a podcast. So here are my thoughts and this is the argument that I plan to make as to why it is important in this election, especially, to put up a yard sign if you have the ability to do so.

Speaker 1: 11:45

First of all, it is super important to me to do so. First of all, it is super important to me, as I alluded to earlier, to let people know that there are other people in your community, on your street, that have political beliefs that probably align with yours. This is a huge problem in areas where it is perceived to be a very Republican area, and you would be out knocking on doors and obviously you have voter data in front of you and you're knocking on doors and someone would say, oh yes, I support you, I'm a Democrat, which we would know from looking at their, looking at their voter information, looking at their voter information, and they'd say I'm a Democrat, but I don't put a sign up or I don't do anything because I know I'm the only Democrat in this neighborhood, I'm the only one on my street, and I would say, well, actually, no, that's not true. I'm looking at this information right now and there are, of these 15 houses, there are seven other Democrats and the voter and I wouldn't necessarily say who they are, but the voter would be like what? No, that can't be accurate. I'm like no, I just talked to three of your neighbors and and they, you know they all tend to think the same thing, because there's this kind of isolation that goes on where you think you're the only one, so you keep that to yourself and you don't reach out and make those connections.

Speaker 1: 13:10

It's why it's hard in a lot of places that are emerging from like red to blue, like here in Cumberland County where I live, it's hard to really build a political infrastructure through local committees, county parties, things like that, because everybody gets in their mind this conventional wisdom that they live in a red area and speaking out is kind of pointless and it's just not true. And the only way to really build an organization and build momentum at the ground level is for people to step out and say no, I'm a Democrat, this is what I believe, these are the people I support, and then that helps bring other people out of their shell and it starts to make those connections. So for that reason those things are important, especially in more local elections, because it allows people to again inform about candidates and have those kind of conversations. This presidential election is obviously different, but to me it is important to let people know that, yes, I do support Kamala Harris and Tim Walz and other Democrats on the ballot, because that then allows for those conversations to take place. It lets people, I think, know what our values are.

Speaker 1: 14:58

Frankly, we saw this a lot during COVID and I see it a lot more now in terms of the way I look at the world, which is, if you're an anti-vaxxer, that kind of forever changes the way I look at you. If you are a hardcore trump supporter and this is a hard thing to say because it gets personal right but if you are a hardcore trump supporter, after all of this, it changes the way I look at you and I'm sorry, but I don't know if I'll ever be able to unsee it, because we have reached such an extreme point in our politics that if you can look at all this and if you have kids, if you have daughters, and be okay with it, be okay with this being the kind of world that you want your kids to grow up in, or grandkids or anybody, that means you're maybe not the person I thought you were, where you've become somebody I didn't think you were and that's tough. That's a really tough place to be and it took me a long time to get there and I'm still not 100% there, but it's getting harder and harder to think any other way, and I'm sure they probably think that about me. But, sorry, I've got facts on my side. I'm not in a cult and this is not a whataboutism. Both sides are equal, it's just a difference of perspective. No, this isn't that. This is something totally different. So to me, putting that sign out is a value statement. This is who I am, this is what I believe Good, bad, ugly and I don't mind letting people know that I'm not ashamed of what I believe, because one thing the Trumpers are not. They are not ashamed, right, they are shameless. So to me, that is an important value statement, just like when someone puts a Trump sign up and this happened.

Speaker 1: 16:45

There was somebody in our neighborhood that we didn't know all that well. They put a Trump sign up early. They were forced to take it down by the HOA, but I couldn't unsee it. And when I walk the dog and I walk past their house and that person is out there with their dog, I don't want to engage with them because it tells me something about them and maybe that's close-minded on my part. I don't know, but I have to be honest with myself, right? So the other part of that is is to me, if the inverse, I guess, being true, if you see a sign in my yard saying I support a candidate and you were going to use that as a way to judge me or to say something to me, and I think that's the fear, right, that you just want to get out and go to your car and take the kids to their sports and walk the dog. You don't want anybody to ever say something to you about. You know, challenge you politically. If you're like to me, I don't mind, but I get why you know my wife wouldn't want that. I get why people wouldn't want that. Because, again, the Trumpers are aggressive and this kind of goes back to the big, the bigger picture. They're very aggressive and you just don't want that. So I get it. And to me, if you're going to be that kind of a person, I kind of want to know that in advance, because then that way I know to steer clear of you from the beginning. And again, it is what it is. So it's a value statement both ways. It's a way of not being afraid to let people know how you feel, because this gets to now the big picture. I talked about voter intimidation. This election is not going to be over on November 5th. This election is, quite frankly, just going to be getting started on November 5th.

Speaker 1: 18:39

And if you look at the rhetoric, just yesterday I think it was Trump made a statement. It was over the weekend. Trump made a statement. It was over the weekend. Trump made a statement that if you put a Kamala Harris and Tim Walz sign in your yard, you could get hurt. Like that's not a oh yeah, we're both sides. No, he actually said that. Like the Republican candidate for president said, if you have a sign for my opponent in your yard, bad things could happen to you, you could get hurt.

Speaker 1: 19:04

And so for anybody that comes back with oh, democrats and political rhetoric are getting people hurt and we have to tone it down. Bullshit. That's the rhetoric and that's coming exactly from the top. You can't explain it away. You know there were a lot of other things. You know Elon Musk saying well, why has anybody trying to kill Kamala Harris? And they say these things then like laugh them off. But the problem is, when those things get said, the guy at the end of the street with the Trump sign up, who doesn't see any Harris signs up? Who thinks that they have that reinforcement, that they are right unequivocally and no one's challenging them on it. So they get bolder and bolder as they go, bolder and bolder as they go as we start to get post-election and all of these conflicts are going to arise of various legal and other kinds.

Speaker 1: 19:50

And I say that in a way where it sounds insane to even say it out loud, as someone who has a political science degree, a law degree and has spent his entire life working in law, government and politics, to say that this could easily become violent in ways beyond January 6th. It could and I think it might. I hope I'm wrong, I pray I'm wrong, but it's almost hard to see in some ways how it doesn't. And that you have all of these people that are just all in on being told right up front that if they lose, they were cheated, it was rigged and they are right and everybody's out to get them. They're trying to steal their election, they're trying to take away their freedom and all the things that they love to say. That is a call to action to those people and the desperation is so obvious from Trump because the stakes for him are so much higher than they were four years ago that it really is starting to feel like instead of a call to action, it's becoming a call to arms, and they view it that way.

Speaker 1: 20:52

It doesn't take much to see how people view this stuff. So, being a, I think that one of the important things is, I think that a lot of these, these Republicans from the top down and locally, I think they're using this period and I'm not saying it's even knowingly, but I think psychologically they're trying to figure out the boundaries here right. Like if none of their neighbors are standing up for the other side, then nobody's standing up for the other side and it's all the deep state, it's all George Soros and all the insanity. But if they see a neighbor, someone they know and see every day, and they see they're supporting another candidate, maybe it gives them a little bit of pause. Maybe, instead of being a keyboard warrior and promoting all this hate and disinformation and misinformation and sowing a lot of these problems that are kind of reaching a boiling point by all these different little pieces, if we could find a way to kind of temper that and put a face on some of it, I think there could actually be a tangible benefit here. So for that reason alone I think it's important.

Speaker 1: 22:01

I'd rather have an uncomfortable discussion now than a much more uncomfortable confrontation after November 5th. Do I think one will prevent the other? Probably not, but I don't know. Can't hurt to try. Finally, and to me maybe this is the easiest argument to make, but it's a little more of the, as my kids would say, the big brain argument. But it's a little more of the, as my kids would say, the big brain argument is this election, at the end of the day, is about our rights Now everybody can perceive those a different way and protecting our rights and protecting the country that we have or that we want to live in, and what that looks like going forward.

Speaker 1: 22:35

And to me, the First Amendment of the Constitution is a fundamental right, and I think it's. I know that that is so often miscited, misunderstood by people who just want it to be what they want it to be. They think it gives them the right to say or do anything with no consequences. And that's not what the First Amendment says. It says the government shall pass no law infringing on those things. Big difference, big difference. But to me, if you look at there's freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and then there's that other one, which is the freedom of expression, which is an offshoot of those You're allowed to express, the things that we value, then we cannot be afraid to exercise those freedoms and those values in order to preserve them. Let me put it another way the architects of our democracy, or our democratic republic, gave us a set of rights and freedoms, which was a precious gift that was, at the time, unique in the world. They gave us the right, and I would say the responsibility, to speak up and defend the things we value, and I don't know, I kind of think this is the kind of thing they had in mind when they did it.

Speaker 1: 23:56

This has been the Keystone Reckoning podcast. Thank you for listening. We'll be back again soon. No-transcript.