Next-door neighbors in Michigan have politics worlds apart
Like in many neighborhoods across the U.S., here in Plymouth, Michigan, just outside of Detroit, the name on the lawn signs can change from house to house. And with Election Day fast approaching, the political divisions within the neighborhood have never been more apparent.
Retired truck driver John Loewen and his wife Nancy say they’re voting for four more years of Trump.
(John Loewen): "His accomplishments, a lot of people really don't like him, a lot of people hate him, but you look at his accomplishments and the things he's done, they're great."
(Nancy Loewen): "And he wants to take our country into a godly direction, not in a communist direction."
The prospect of a second Trump term is a scary one for Plymouth resident and Biden supporter Alex Morgan. But Morgan, whose neighbor two houses down is voting for Trump, says he sees the benefit in having some political diversity in the neighborhood.
"Great to have neighbors with different political views, because I don't know everything, they'd not know everything, and perhaps we can be polite and have polite disagreements."
But not all of the political discourse has been this cordial in the neighborhood.
Joe Kott said he didn’t feel totally comfortable displaying his Trump signs:
"Everybody seems to get along, this is the first election where it's gotten a little ugly and people stealing lawn signs. It's pretty stupid actually… I think the left is just so angry, I've actually been a little afraid of putting a sign out in front of my yard, that something was going to happen, and if I go out of town, my wife would make me take it down, it's just stupid things that are happening.”
The same has happened for Biden supporters too. Morgan said he decided to fly a Biden flag after two of his Biden signs were stolen from his front yard.
But in the end, these residents don’t want politics to divide their community.. because it’s just not the Michigan way, Biden supporter James Cullen said.
"Even if people do have different political opinions, the vast majority of people do love their neighbors, I think they need to find a better expression of how they love their neighbors. I think that this state can do a lot better.”
