On Political signs…

Oh, they are EVERYWHERE. Straight up, I just want to say to people do not panic. You are seeing the political sign army in action. Big signs, well entrenched signs…these signs will not tilt when the snow melts. It is an art form to some who wait for these two year cycles. It’s what they do.

You will see FAR more signs from the other candidate than you will from me. I know it feels slightly desperate; like walking into a Super Bowl party and seeing a greater number of jerseys for the other team than for yours. Louder voices, louder chants. Do these mean the other team will win? (Doesn’t it feel sort of good to be the underdog?)

Signs play an increasingly less influential part in who wins. People are watching, listening and informing themselves. It is not a popularity contest in whose name is “recognized”. Adult human beings who are engaged, civic-minded citizens do not look for how many signs a candidate has. They recognize what the candidate has wrought, or will bring to a community. Sometime a sign goes up, and it is a house divided…one person says yes, put a sign in our yard! (The other secretly votes the opposite of that.)

I have a strict limit on what I have chosen to spend on this campaign. I am eternally grateful to those of you who have offered me money. If I took it all, we’d also have signs everywhere, because people have also offered many yards and corners to me as well. We would have SO. MANY. SIGNS.

But that really isn’t the measure of a candidate.

We have been told it is. We have been manipulated to think that more signs, and bigger signs are necessary to win. It is a money game. A “deep pockets” game. And they want us to keep playing it. It benefits them. Quit playing their game. Everyone does NOT have money.

You want your country back? This is about US.

I want a change. I want money out of politics entirely actually. A looooooong endgame. So I have to stick to that belief.

I apologize to all of you who want to see me put signs everywhere. We are your team, and you want us to be winning. We don’t like to look like we are not on the winning side. It makes that little burning feeling…flames coming out the sides of your head…when you see those big signs : ) HOW? WHY?

It is the status quo. Don’t be afraid of it.

I am DEEPLY grateful to all of you who have offered to pay to help me make more signs. When I say no, is NOT an insult to you, and it is not dismissive! It is simply true to my own heart. To even spend what I have already have spent has created a pit in my stomach, when there are people in this world who literally have nothing. What sort of weird self-importance am I engaging in? Do ALL political candidates go through this soul searching? How do you reconcile spending hundreds and thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars on signs and a campaign, when every 8 seconds a child dies from lack of access to clean water? WHAT?

I understand that it might be what people think it takes to win. But when you are trying to shift a paradigm, you sometimes have to throw yourself under the bus. If I do not win this election, MAYBE it is because I didn’t put up enough signs.

But if I stuck to what my heart and head said, and that is a victory in and of itself. And maybe the next person who chooses to turn away from the money will fare a little better, and the next and the next….and MAYBE we will grassroots our way right into a victory. And THEN, what does that say to the deep pockets?

I do not despair when I see the signs everywhere! It is an interesting sociological study to me. Who are the people putting them up…at businesses (?), or on property ready for development, or on empty lots? Does that feel like winning to them?

My 30 signs are mostly small, and stuck in yards of people who really care. Sometimes they are not even in the strategic spots, but in the yards of people whose values I love and honor. They are slightly crooked and I have put most of them in the snow banks myself. I do not have forces of people calling and placing them. There are zero Liz signs on any sort of For Sale properties, or empty lots.

They are all connected directly to me.

And I have more faith in our voters, and our citizens than to think that they are swayed by the size and numbers of signs they see. As an adult, I can think of very few people who say “I think I will vote for that candidate…they have more bigger signs!”

I inform myself. I vote accordingly. And I know you do too.