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Return to Juliet Avenue
by Chris Roberts, Minnesota Public Radio
November 25, 2004

Juliet Avenue returns to normal after the election. Most of the yard signs have disappeared, but some neighbors worry about continuing political polarization. (MPR photo/Chris Roberts)

It's been almost a month since Election Day. For some, one of the most bitterly fought presidential campaigns in American history is already a distant memory. Others are still struggling to decipher its meaning. Before the election, we reported on a St. Paul street where neighbors were engaged in a silent political sign war. Minnesota Public Radio's Chris Roberts returned to Juliet Avenue to find out what neighbors are thinking now.

St. Paul, Minn. — On the surface, it seems like the 1900 block of Juliet Avenue is getting back to normal; normal being quaint and quiet. The political yard signs have all but disappeared. For longtime resident and retired Minneapolis cop John Arens, the right man for the job won re-election. But Arens isn't really in a gloating mood about President Bush's victory, not he says with the country still bogged down in the war in Iraq.

"I can only hope that it will go better, that our troops will be successful, but I really have my doubts," he says. "As far as the other points that he made in the campaign about the coming four years, they're on a backburner as far as I'm concerned. My concern is Iraq."

Before the election, Arens said he was struck and befuddled by the level of vitriol and condemnation many Democrats expressed toward George Bush. As far as Arens can tell, those feelings won't be dissipating any time soon. He recalls a conversation he had after the election with the wife of a close friend.

"This is a woman I've known for more than 40 years," Arens says. "A staunch liberal to be sure, but someone who was always calm, kind and collected." He says the woman just about lost it on the phone, using the word "hate" in reference to Mr. Bush, several times during the conversation.

"If she can show that side because of an election and she's an intelligent, in-control woman, what are the half-wits out there doing that happen to call themselves Democrats?" he says. "They must just be full of burning hatred."

Across the street, Kathy Braga's John Kerry signs are still posted in her yard, symbols of deep disappointment and hope. Braga, a stay-at-home mom, says after November 2, she started going through what seemed like the stages of grief in stops and starts. Right now, she's trying to focus on the future, not on President Bush's victory.

	Juliet Avenue before the election.

"We do have our time coming," she says. "I do believe it's got to be cyclical. And this sounds awful but a lot of us are saying, 'I just can't wait to see him screw up' because it's going to be his fault. He cannot blame it on anybody. It's going to be his problem, and he's going to have to fix it, which he won't be able to do because he didn't in the four years prior."

Braga thinks the debate over moral values is tearing the country apart. In her view, the 2004 election added two more seemingly intractable issues to the debate, gay marriage, and stem cell research. She's worried the nation won't be able to come to a consensus on either of them for a long time.

"I'm afraid it will just get very ugly, like it already has with abortion," she says. "I'm afraid it will even get uglier but it will divide us so we're almost like a country divided like it used to be before the Civil War, but I'm hoping it won't go to that."

Braga's neighbor up the street, Gene Baum, is happy President Bush was re-elected and happy moral values were on some voter's minds when they went to the polls. The 61-year-old carpenter insists he's not a "Bible thumper," but he thinks Americans need some perspective on how morals have changed in this country. He says what was normal when he was growing up in the '50s is now considered conservative.

"I believe in all the normal things, you know that we grew up with, that we were taught, and all of a sudden we're being told that those don't work anymore," Baum says. "You've got to accept this that or the other thing. And I just always figured it's the other way around; people that are on the fringe have to adapt to the majority, not the majority adapting to the fringe or the small groups of people."

If there's one thing in the election's aftermath the neighbors all agree on, it's that America is a divided nation, and probably will be for years to come. That scares John Arens, who thinks polarization is dangerous during a time of war.

"If polarization had occurred in 1943 and we were fighting Japan on one front and Germany on another, that war would have lasted indefinitely," he says. "We wouldn't have had the success we had. We were successful because we were united. If we want success in this war on terrorism, we've got to remain united."

	Is help on the way?

Arens says it would be better if the country wasn't so divided, but he doesn’t believe it's incumbent on President Bush to do anything about it. He says it's the Democrats who need to shed their extremism and fringe elements, and join the mainstream.

"I think there are some real good moderate Democrats that are going to get the public's attention," he says. "And I think the party, if it's going to survive, is going to have to listen to them. Otherwise, I think Democrats are going to be as rare as albino buffalo."

Meanwhile Kathy Braga was hoping President Bush would attempt to bridge the divide by appointing a few Democrats to his cabinet. That hope is fading. She also believes religion doesn't belong in politics.

"I think religion needs to get out of it," she says. "I just don't think there should be this intolerance about what you believe in or don't believe in. If people would just, not let the Bible dictate their lives, and just let it be common sense. What your heart tells you. You know, listen to your gut. And I feel people might be more open."

One gentleman who decided not to engage his neighbors on Juliet too often during the presidential campaign is Jim Willenbring. Willenbring, a Twin Cities medical firm marketing director, says the campaign contained too many hot button issues being manipulated by politicians. So it's surprising to hear his opinion on the value of political polarization. Ironically, Willenbring believes it enlivens democracy.

"Polarization is an interesting term, because what does it mean?" he says. "I think it means people are entrenching into their deeply-held positions. And if they feel really strongly about that, guess what? I think that's gonna be incentive for them to get involved. And the more people that get involved in the government, in the process, I think that's a good thing."

Right now though, Willenbring says he suffers from a severe case of election fatigue.

"I don't want to talk about the election," he says. "I don't want to talk about the issues, I just want to talk about neighbor stuff. And I think I want to return back to a normal life."

Willenbring says the neighbors on Juliet will have an entire winter to either celebrate the result of the election, lick their wounds, or continue to ponder what it all means.

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