The Neighborhood Optimism of the Lawn Sign

It’s civic engagement!

There is something charming, even endearing, to me about a political lawn sign. In an age where everyone seems to be shouting for your attention all the time, a political lawn sign just sits there, lo-fi and eternal, like a scrawl on a cave. I know there are people — you may well be one of these people — who are irritated by political lawn signs, who are already overwhelmed and exhausted by politics and the coming election, who have taken great pains to avoid it and thus who don’t appreciate having to be confronted by it constantly when they’re just trying to drive home from work. I am empathetic to this. Remember, I live in a swing state, which means I currently can’t watch a 20-second Illini football highlight without having to hear about the apparently infinite number of serial killers Kamala Harris has let out of prison or how J.D. Vance is hiding a tattoo of the complete Project 2025 platform under his beard. It’s relentless. I get wanting to have a few minutes away.

But the difference between firing off angry missives on social media and putting up a sign on your front lawn encouraging people to vote for your candidate of choice strikes me as vast. To stake your claim in front of your home, where you live, isn’t tossing more verbiage onto the endless heap like posting on social media is; it’s actively participating in the public square. It is putting your money where your mouth is, or, more accurately, it’s understanding that the political is personal — that you and…