ALGOMA, Wis. — The confrontation in this tiny fishing town on Lake Michigan that markets itself as "Friendly Algoma" began, in the modern American fashion, with a Facebook post. In early October, an anonymous poster complained on Algoma's community Facebook page that someone had been vandalizing political signs around town.
Stay off your neighbor's lawn, the poster wrote, saying that "kindness should always win." Dennis Paul, 65, an Algoma resident, saw the post and typed in a couple of sharp comments. So did his neighbor, Abbey Bridges, 40, a Democrat who lives across the street, writing that there was little point in engaging in political debate with Paul, a supporter of former President Donald Trump.
Hours later, sitting on the wraparound porch of his white clapboard house, Paul saw Bridges walking her dog and decided not to let the whole thing rest. "Get a job!" he shouted, Bridges recalled, lobbing more insults and what she perceived as a threat to beat her up. She called the police.
Algoma is known in Wisconsin as a sleepy, charming little place, a draw for tourists with its charter fishing trips, antique shops and beachfront boardwalk that is perfect for a lakeside stroll. What is less widely known is its unusually deep political divide. The vast majority of Americans live in geographic polarization, towns and cities where many people generally share the same political sensibilities.
Only 5% of the U.S. population lives in a neighborhood where the vote margin between.
