Rosalia Holmlund would awaken each morning before her husband, walk to the front yard, remove his Trump campaign sign, put it in the trunk of her black BMW and drive to work. Then she would throw it in the garbage.

Not that Ken Holmlund was easily deterred. Each night, when she came home from work, a new Trump sign would be waiting to greet her, courtesy of the man she married 26 years ago, a staunch supporter of the Republican Party. This happened five times last week, and the divisiveness has put a serious strain on their relationship and family, she says.

“I am fighting a little kid,” Rosalia Holmlund says. “He’s so fanatical it’s incredible.”

As one of the most contentious presidential campaigns in history is nearing the end, it has not only taken a toll on families, but businesses and communities as well. A Monmouth University poll concluded 70 percent of respondents think the race between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton has brought out the worst in people — and Rosalia Holmlund would agree with those findings. The political discord that has been so pervasive within her own family has infiltrated her professional life as well.

Someone took a picture of a Trump sign in her yard last week and posted it on a web page called La Pulga de Bradenton. Under it was the caption: “Look who the owners of El Mariachi Loco are voting for.”

Rosalia Holmlund is the owner of El Mariachi Loco, an impressive 20,000-square-foot restaurant and grocery store on 15th Street East in south Manatee County. Inside is a bakery and a meat counter and people have actually said their tamales make life worth living. That’s not all. They cash checks, wire money, even sell insurance. She would like to add a health clinic. It is a hub for the Hispanic community.

“I always worry about what the community needs,” she says.

Losing business

Rosalia Holmlund has been a U.S. citizen for 38 years. When she arrived here from Colombia, undocumented for a while, she cleaned houses for 10 years before starting her current business. By 2006 she had made her first million.

On her office walls are framed magazine covers and a plaque from 2003, when the Latin Chamber of Commerce honored El Mariachi Loco as “Business of the Year.”

But things have changed recently since a photo of the Trump sign was posted. The reviews on the store’s Facebook page, which had been almost universally positive for years, now have nasty complaints and personal attacks against her. People have written that the business has stale food, the customer service is poor and there is a roach problem. Visit in person and you will see the place is spotless.

Someone wrote on the Facebook page: “I pray God knocks some sense onto that fragile head of yours. Hope Trump comes to your store and buys a bag of chips. Ha-ha. You’re going to need every dollar after today. Have a nice night.”

Business has noticeably dropped off in the last week because of the Trump sign, Rosalia Holmund says, and she is worried about her employees. If business starts to consistently lag she doesn’t want to lay them off.

“The bottom line is people are frustrated and are looking for an enemy in our own community and we’re not it,” says Rosalia’s son, Kenneth Michael Holmlund.

Rosalia Holmlund says she is not voting for Trump or Clinton. She and her two sons, Kenneth Michael and Juan, are voting for Gary Johnson. Rosalia says her husband is not backing Trump either but is supporting the Republican ticket across the board.

“Even if you are affiliated with someone who supports the Republican Party, that can get you crucified,” Kenneth Michael Holmlund says.

Anger, anger, anger

The acrimonious divide of this election can also be found at the intersection of University Parkway and Lockwood Ridge Road, where a volunteer who gave her name only as Adrianne stood Wednesday and yelled “Go Trump!” at every rush-hour car, bus and truck that drove by.

She waved a pink campaign sign that said “Women for Trump” and wore a Trump button, a Trump bracelet and a T-shirt that said “Adorable Deplorable” on it. Her truck was parked a short distance away and in the back was a 6-foot-3-inch tall wooden replica of Trump. Someone recently drew a Hitler mustache on it so she had to cover it up with beige makeup. Now the color matches his hair.

A woman in a black PT Cruiser stopped at a red light on University Parkway and waited to turn south onto Lockwood Ridge. She spotted Adrianne and her fellow Trump supporters, rolled down her window and began to scream at them. Her face turned color and the veins in her neck protruded.

“Anyone but Trump,” she yelled. Once the light changed she continued to scream and she turned so wide that she nearly ran off the road and onto the property of Demetrio’s Pizza.

“I don’t know where the anger comes from,” Adrianne says. “It’s just anger, anger, anger.”

The anger is because many Americans view Clinton and Donald Trump as two of the most unlikable candidates ever, and hostilities seem to be everywhere. According to a poll conducted by the Huffington Post and YouGov, 26 percent of voters have argued with a friend over the election, 23 percent with a family member and 11 percent have fought with someone at work.

Adrianne says she was knocking on doors in Bradenton recently when she came to a stately brick house. An older woman answered and after Adrianne asked her an election question that woman answered with a faint whisper. Then she recommended that the two quietly continue conversing in the front yard.

“She didn’t want her husband to hear or it would start a fight,” Adrianne says.

Hostile environment

Adrianne says that she doesn’t remember an election being so adversarial. The 2012 election between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney was a pillow fight compared to this.

She estimates that she received an obscene finger gesture for every 15 honks of support and the majority of the people who use the gesture are women. Surprisingly, she says, many are over age 65.

“It’s unladylike and it’s weird for that generation to flip you the finger,” she says, “but they will.”

Last Wednesday, she stood at the intersection for three hours with three women volunteers and a man who held about 20 signs that he paid for himself. One of the signs said: “Don’t vote for Monica’s ex-boyfriend’s wife.” It was hard to read at the busy intersection, but the man says it’s an attention-grabber in downtown Sarasota. Some people get their photos with it. Others throw water at him.

A lady drove by the University Parkway intersection bouncing up and down in her seat while giving the supporters the thumbs-down. Another lady called Trump a racist as she drove by. People in trucks will sometimes blow black smoke on Adrianne — she always goes home and showers — and it’s not known if they are just kids being cool or have a political opinion to express.

It should also be known that Trump receives a large number of cars honking in support, and Adrianne has noticed a lot more business vehicles this time around sharing their views. And she does notice.

If a person representing a business displays an obscene gesture she will not use that business. Question: What if her air conditioner breaks down in July and she needs immediate assistance? Would she call a business that flipped her off?

“No,” she says. “I’d go without.”

She may have been serious, but there were many light moments, too. After an afternoon of getting honked at, screamed at and flipped off during the most divisive of all elections, humor is an essential mechanism for survival.

“I’ve got to go pee but I can hold it,” she says as she waved her sign. “It’s for my country.”