America's Cash Crop
For the longest time tobacco was the big cash crop here in Kentucky. Times change and tobacco went out of style, leaving people scrambling to find a new cash crop.
Some turned to growing marijuana but they forgot to get it greenlit by the government. If you think the taxman is ill-tempered, you should meet the folks from the DEA.
What's a poor farmer to do? Grow political signs! For the life of me I can't figure out how there's any cash in it but that's what it appears everyone has switched to.
Since the pandemic began it seems more and more people are getting interested in farming. Political signs can apparently grow anywhere, which makes them ideal for urban farming.
Used to they would only grow every other year but with global warming their growing season just keeps getting longer.
Seeing everyone's crops as I was wondering around got me to thinking. Each of these signs represents some small amount of money and when you replicate this on street after street, neighborhood after neighborhood, all across this country it starts to add up a bit.
If you think about it, money is a physical representation of time. Here in Kentucky $7.25 USD is the same thing as one hour of someone's life working minimum wage. Or at bulk rates, 2-3 signs.
How many hours of how many peoples' lives does our cash crop represent? Aside from irritating our neighbors, what do we even get from it? Can anyone honestly say that a yard sign changed how they voted?
Some are slightly terrifying. More disturbing is the passive aggressive attempt at peer pressure that they represent. What purpose does advertising your political sympathies serve other than to pressure others imitate you?
I guess if you plant them right they work almost as well as a picket fence.
Curiously, visibility seems to be more important than sunlight for making them grow.
Being near a highway is especially beneficial for them.
In extreme cases they may turn into an invasive species.
Whatever you do, don't let them cross-pollinate!
Are political signs a cash crop where you live too?
Hahha this was pretty funny. I was a bit unsure where you were going with the post at first. Well written!
Thanks! Lol, I wasn't entirely sure myself at first :)
Thanks for reading!
Haha usually that's how I start when I write 😅 a general direction that I change 10 times before I finish what I've written
Oddly someone has been removing the political signs in the neighborhood where I live. I am not sure if it is the city or just people who are tired of politics.
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Is there a college or university nearby? When I was in college one of our favorite drunken pastimes was stealing/vandalizing political signs.
Ugh. So many sighns here. If my vote was really as important as they say, why can't they offer me cash instead of offending my eyes?
Right? It would be the capitalist thing to do I would think. Or bourbon at the very least. Lol, when my uncle's brother was young it was his job to relay the half pints of whiskey to the guy shaking everyone's hand as they were about to go into the polling station.
On the 'if my vote was really as important' front, back in 2020 we got a good demonstration of that, or that it's lack. The Democrats' national party had already decided who they wanted to contest Mitch McConnell's seat without bothering to actually consult with those of us living in the state. They deluged us with signs and political spending and their candidate just barely squeaked out a win in the primary over the person who had actual grassroots support. When the general election came around the state collectively shrugged and she got buried in a landslide.
That's a funny perspective. They grow in the fall, like mushrooms. Weird to see these colorful signs in black and white.
The Netherlands couldn't be more different. We don't even elect mayors or senators directly, never mind judges or school board members. And our suburbs are designed to avoid driving along people's front yards. So we don't have a lot of lawn signs. Maybe some window posters here and there. In other European countries (Germany, Spain, Estonia, Lithuania), I saw mostly commercial billboards used for political advertising.
At the moment Dutch farmers are protesting for the right to keep polluting by flying flags upside down along the highways. But during election campaigns, political posters are concentrated on wooden boards put up by the municipality. Since this tended to turn into an ugly mess, more and more cities started putting up posters in standard sizes for all party lists themselves (yes, that's 20 parties campaigning for city elections - 15 of them were elected). I don't like this approach; it means you don't need any volunteers to be visible.
There's actually two growing seasons, spring for the primary election (think one of your party lists but they're all running for the same seat and only members of that party can vote for them) and then the general election in the fall with the party winners competing against each other. This has led to situations where one party is supporting some of the more extreme candidates in the opposing party during primaries in hopes of having an easier matchup against the extremist in the general election. Give me a week and I should be able to tell you how bad of an idea that was.
I wrote this in part to get an idea of whether this is a common phenomenon or a peculiarly American thing, now I'm going to have to read up on how you do things there, it sounds intriguing. Particularly the designs of the suburbs 🤣 The area these were shot in was once the suburbs of Louisville (Kentucky) but the city has since grown considerably and they no longer count as that.
They use commercial billboards here too but those are mostly concentrated around major highways, what I photographed for this was all done on an individual, volunteer basis.
Ah, the old upside down flag gag. That's interesting because here flying it upside down is largely confined to groups on the left end of the spectrum. Then again, it's largely the ones on the right that have flags and flagpoles in their yards in the first place.
Lol, and I thought our ballots are confusing. There were a couple signs pictured that said "Vote no on 2" which is an amendment to the state constitution relating to abortion (no is in favor of abortion/yes is against) but the amendments on the ballot are always worded so confusingly that it's damn near impossible to be sure which side you're voting for without doing some independent research.
I wish we could do it the way you do, it'd be a lot less of an eyesore that way. It does set a pretty low threshold for normalizing more extreme groups though. I'm still chuckling at seeing the Pirate Party on one of those signs in your post.
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