Today, getting away from the incessant news on Brett Kavanaugh, I went to the local print shop to get business cards printed for a new venture.  It was hardly an event I expected would lead to any insight into our political times.

I have been to this print store often.  There is never a line.  Service is immediate and excellent.  Not today.  Today, the line was four people long.  No problem; I read from my iPhone as I waited.

Then, out from the back comes a gentleman with a pile of Ted Cruz yard signs that had to have 50 or 75 in a stack.  Then another, then several more.  They filled up a Ford 250 pickup.  Then a second truck, then a third.  Only two people in line now.

I recalled that I had contributed weeks ago to the Cruz campaign.  I was supposed to get a signed basketball and two yard signs, but neither ever came.  I just wrote it off as a bad staff thing or incompetent vendor.  No problem; I like Ted.

When I came up to my turn for the business cards, I asked the young lady, clearly in high school, what was with the Ted Cruz signs.  She said everyone wanted them, and they could not get them from the Cruz people, so someone was having them printed, and they were being sold at cost.

She said the word got out that they had Cruz signs, and now there was a line every morning for them, and people were buying them in lots of 50 or 100.  They even had to increase production.

So I asked about the Beto signs.  She said nobody had asked for them.  I figured that this was likely because the Beto team had gone long on yard signs early and sopped up the demand.

So here we are.  I never got my yard signs from the Cruz people and never got the signed basketball.

But I did get an insight into what the Deplorables are up to.  They're getting their yard signs printed, getting them out via their own networks, and working to get this guy elected in spite of what appears to be a pretty lackluster campaign.

Ted Cruz may not be driving a great campaign, but the Deplorables seem to be doing it for him.

Beto may not be in as good shape as he appears.

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr.