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If You Die in D.C., You Die in Real Life
American politics has become a meme. That’s not really the problem.
How do you even begin to take American politics seriously these days?
I lost it at last week’s headline that Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, vowed “to stay sober if confirmed.” That’s heartening, I suppose. Elon Musk — you know, this guy. This guy. This guy.— will be leading a new government department whose initials (apparently by design) spell out “DOGE,” and is now being asked to help resolve the Israeli hostage situation in Gaza. Meanwhile, the Republican-led House voted not to release the Matt Gaetz ethics report. It seems the contents struck a chord, which was probably A minor.
I tried summing up the Brian Thompson shooting for my British best friend the other day and found that the whole situation, let alone the public response, was simply too American on too many fronts to explain. That a murder has spawned this many memes says a lot about how Americans feel about our systems right now. There was a CEO shooter lookalike contest in Washington Square Park. There are reels playing the “They had it coming” section of “The Cell Block Tango” from Chicago over photos of widely-hated CEOs’ faces. I keep seeing an image of a Live, Laugh, Love-style wall hanging that now reads, “Deny…
