LET’S GO, BRANDON! There’s a crisis afoot in the land — people are being rude to President Joe Biden.
As Byron York of the Washington Examiner has noted, Donald Trump’s opponents gloried in the F-word, such that without it some of them would have been rendered practically mute. When Robert De Niro introduced Bruce Springsteen at the 2018 Tony Awards, he used the opportunity to declare: “I’m gonna say one thing. (Expletive) Trump.” Cue the standing ovation.
A Los Angeles art gallery had a “(Expletive)Trump” exhibit, rapper Eminem led an “(Expletive) Trump” call-and-response at a concert in England, and so on.
The new progressive rule is “(Expletive) you” for me, but not for thee.
The “(Expletive) Joe Biden” chant took an unexpected turn last month. The NASCAR driver Brandon Brown won a race at the Talladega Superspeedway and the reporter interviewing him misstated a growing “(Expletive) Joe Biden” chant in the background as fans saying, “Let’s go Brandon.”
The substitute version of the insult, instantly adopted by the president’s critics, is more lighthearted than the original. Fundamentally, it’s a joke. It is a gibe at Biden, but also at the misreporting of the chant at the raceway, taken as a symbol of the media’s ridiculous protectiveness toward Biden.
Whom the gods would destroy, they first make ridiculous. In this case, the ruling class is doing it to itself.