Sad signs of the times
Submitted by Doug Thompson on October 6, 2008 - 7:01am.
While on a long motorcycle ride through the passes and bypasses of Southwestern Virginia recently, I noticed an interesting, but disturbing, trend in the sea of political signs that cover the landscape.
In Republican front yards, you find signs touting GOP Senatorial candidate Jim Gilmore, the party's choice for the House (different names depending on the district) and, of course, the signs promoting John McCain and Sarah Palin in the Presidential race.
In many Democratic yards, however, you see signs promoting Senatorial choice Mark Warner, House choices like Rick Boucher, but no signs for Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
Oversight? I doubt it. Racism? Yep. I've even seen some yards promoting Warner, Boucher and McCain.
McCain will probably carry Southwestern Virginia, even as racist incumbent Senator George Allen did two years ago, although Allen lost when more enlightened members of the electorate cast their votes elsewhere in the state. And voters around here continue to send blatant racists like Virgil Goode back to Washington.
We can talk until the cows come home about how Southwestern Virginia has changed for the better but the sad fact remains that racism still has strong roots in this part of the state. I've overheard too many overt racist comments about Obama in the last few months and racism, unfortunately, extends beyond the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.
If Obama were white and had a more Anglo Saxon sounding name, McCain and Palin wouldn't stand a chance. But he's half black and that's a problem when racism remains part of our national heritage.
Writes Charles Babbington of The Associated Press:
Since the nation's birth, Americans have discussed race and avoided it, organized neighborhoods and political movements around it, and used it to divide and hurt people even as relations have improved dramatically since the days of slavery, Reconstruction and legal segregation.
Now, in what could be a historic year for a black presidential candidate, a new Associated Press-Yahoo! News poll, conducted with Stanford University, shows just how wide a gap remains between whites and blacks.
It shows that a substantial portion of white Americans still harbor negative feelings toward blacks. It shows that blacks and whites disagree tremendously on how much racial prejudice exists, whose fault it is and how much influence blacks have in politics.
One result is that Barack Obama's path to the presidency is steeper than it would be if he were white.
I have to disagree
Because I don't have an Obama sign in my yard tells the world I am racist? I don't think so.
My mom always said "You'll be known by the company you keep". Maybe this is the measurement I use to determine who's sign is in my yard. I think the assumption is a stretch.
I'll be glad when this election is over, it continues to divide the country.
Yes, but
I have no doubt that there is a number of dems who won't vote for Obama because of race. I am hoping that the youth vote will overcome that. However, here in Radford it is very difficult to get an Obama yard sign. According to the Dem. office downtown, the minute they get them, they are gone. That seems to be the case all over the state. People also are reporting that if they can get a sign, it might get stolen.
It's Not Always About Race
Mark Warner is the kind of reasonable centrist candidate who has proven to have a broad appeal across party lines. He will attract a large number of moderate voters from both parties who would not consider supporting Gilmore or Obama, and it has nothing to do with race.
I guess you missed the memo
The Campaign for Change is too busy winning the election to get folks their yard signs! Barack Obama’s campaign decided to forgo the traditional time-wasting distribution of chum (yard signs, bumper stickers, etc.). The theory is "yard signs don't vote".
Obama opened dozens of field offices across the Commonwealth and organized volunteers to find voters, and convince them to vote for Obama. So yard signs are generally awarded to donors and volunteers. In addition, many, many people who consider themselves Republican have decided to vote for Obama, and they don't want to advertise it.
But if you just have to have the campaign bling...Contact your County Dem Committee - they have been buying them, and reselling.
Wow..no Obama signs in your
Wow..no Obama signs in your yard means you're a racist. No other reasons possible?
Is the same method for determining racists applied if you go into a mostly black neighborhood and only see Obama signs in the front yard?
Makes me wonder what is worse...racists, or people who go around calling others racists with NO proof. That word is thrown around too liberally in my opinion.
I enjoy reading your blog.
yard signs
I believe Doug was only referring to those people with signs for the white democratic candidates but not the black democratic candidate.
Obama bling is in too high of demand
Doug, we ordered our obama sign 4 weeks ago (no donation necessary) and it has still yet to get here; the problem is not low supply, but high demand. the roanoke field office said they cannot keep them in stock. There have been rumblings among county dems to have obama sign making parties...
of course, disenchanted republicans stealing the yard signs dont help matters either, as evidenced by the front page article in the floyd press last week. I am sure some mccain signs have been stolen, but there are plenty of obama signs that used to be there, but suddenly disappeared that I can think of personally.
From the Highlands
On our return from the Grayson Highlands seems like the Obama faction has gotten the best of the yard signage.
Rough estimate would be about 65% Obama 35% McCain.
And one for the "Hot Chick and the Old Man"
Though I believe that one may be hard to ratify in the voter's booth.
You're not alone in your assumption
I too had drawn the same conclusion driving around Floyd county myself just recently. I was counting the percentage of Obama vs. McSame signs- similar to Greyfox above- & noticed how many Warner signs there were without an Obama sign to go with it. I'm still waiting for my own Obama sign & stickers ordered online 2 weeks ago! From the comments here I guess I'd better just keep my fingers crossed that I'll receive them before the election.
Very few yard signs in my development
This is Goldwater land but few will support McCain due to his Amnesty vote. He really lost Arizona with his backing out of the much-needed fence and new immigration laws.
My kids are supporting Mark Warner and have attended many fund raisers. I mention this only because my youngest daughter and her husband are Republicans. They have had enough of the GOP. I'm writing in Ron Paul. Shoot me!
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