Imagine for a moment the Queen of England, in all her splendor, is parading outside of Buckingham Palace. The crowds are gathered on all sides as her procession makes its way past the Queen Victoria memorial and by St James’s Park. They stare in amazement and celebrate on their Instagram and Facebook accounts the encounter until suddenly, in the middle of it all, a fly lands on Her Majesty’s head. Everyone sees the fly. Nobody thinks much of it, but the fly stays until she finally swats it away. The public, however, is taken aback by the audacity the Queen displays in this breach of decorum. Social media explodes. There are rampant reports on television questioning the legitimacy of the throne, even as a mere figurehead. Murmurs are heard in Parliament of attempts to remove the entire royal family and nobody present at the parade now even remembers the pomp and circumstance, only that they were there and that they checked in on Facebook to prove it.
It’s clearly an absurdity. Nothing so instinctual as swatting away a fly would have any measurable impact on a healthy nation’s politics. Real politics is far more complicated and deeply rooted than that.
As I sat by my fire recently, I decided against my better judgement to tune into the vice presidential debate. It was predictably less catastrophic and argumentative than the previous debate. A short one-night diversion from a couples’ series binge. It felt slightly less bias, mostly due to the ability of Vice President Pence to remain calm and seem in control even when the questions are clearly stacked against him. The slightly less feminine looking Chris Wallace may have also contributed, though my wife insisted this was a different moderator altogether.
They discussed the expected topics and I was about to return to our series when it happened. A fly landed on Mike Pence’s head. It didn’t fly away. It stayed there, right on top of his pasty white hair. I looked at the fly’s host to see if he would react. My eyes darted to the Californian looking for any reaction at all. “She’s going to snicker isn’t she?” I thought to myself. The fly remained. A good solid minute or so. I knew instantly the fly would be one of the most popular memes within minutes.
What would Pence do? Would he shake his head? Smack himself? How many things could he do wrong here to make himself appear just weak enough that the lowest common denominators amongst us would be swayed to stay home on election day. From that angle, he couldn’t possibly pull a move like the one Obama tried a decade ago, snatching a fly up mid-interview without missing a beat. Read through all those thoughts again. Fueled only by the ramblings of a functional madman at the end of a long day and perhaps a few shots of whiskey. They’re ridiculous.
Yet, this is the type of thought being expressed just backstage on either side at any given point. We know “first black woman [fill in the blank]” is well rehearsed. And, “Trump has always denounced [substitute thoughtcrime of the day]” is a well worn talking point. These candidates are in their position because they’ve mastered selling an entire worldview.
What’s the immediate takeaway from the debate? One instant poll showed a relatively close race between Pence at 49% and the fly at 39% and with Harris falling to a distance 12%. Rough night.
It’s slightly humorous and this rambling is half in jest, but I finally came to the conclusion that in a serious country I wouldn’t have ever found myself even slightly concerned about the reaction to a fly. It’s enough that the Left sees our replacement as something to celebrate. It’s enough that out counterparts outside of Dixie either see our culture as anathema to their view of “America” or don’t even see the difference at all. The entire system is so superficial that the general public is discussing anything but Supreme Court appointments, riots, arson, and crime rate statistics.
In an ideal Free South, the men would hold genteel discussions on matters of state and the women and children would be nearly oblivious to its impacts. Reality, of course, dictates that we all have some level of awareness or involvement. If the meme wars were a sign of a last ditch effort to impact our election process directly, fly memes are an admission that the important subjects may now be entirely out of our hands. If we, as a people, aren’t going to honestly discuss how little the Trump administration (or the next one for that matter) can actually do to stop the attacks on our people (and cities), perhaps our time would be better spent now discussing what we’ll do when the illusion is fully removed and swatting at flows is no longer enough.
-By Old Line State
O I’m a good old rebel, now that’s just what I am. For this “fair land of freedom” I do not care at all. I’m glad I fit against it, I only wish we’d won, And I don’t want no pardon for anything I done.
