They are people like Kathy and Frank Foulkrod. Both are 73-year-old retired schoolteachers whose families have lived in the region for generations. They’re also Democrats, members of a minority group in a place that’s suddenly unfamiliar to them. On a tour of the town and nearby communities, they told me they have never felt so detached from their neighbors. “Life here has never been as coarse as it is now,” Frank says.

Daily rituals are a series of passive insults. Our drive reveals multiple signs as profane as the one across from the church, another sign calling Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris “Baby Killers,” not to mention the “Don’t Tread on Trump” placard in the window of The Cheapo Depo 2. It wasn’t far from where a handmade sign once stood with the ominous warning: “We shoot looters.” It goes beyond threats. Once-benign personal encounters between acquaintances in bookstores and barber shops have turned into bitter, ridicule-infused standoffs over abiding by Covid-19 protocols. On a community website Frank gets on from time to time, where people once reacted to ordinary news about store openings and closings, anonymous commenters now unleash anti-government diatribes and allegations of corruption against Biden’s son, Hunter. “They’re adding timber to the fire,” Frank says…

“Before Trump, you didn’t know anyone’s political affiliation and now they found somebody that they can go with and so they put up all their signs everywhere,” Frank says, pulling his SUV to the side of a road. A sign with Trump’s grinning picture is off to the right: “Miss me yet?” it says. “Don’t blame me,” says another sign attached to a house, “I voted for Trump.”