I am sure you have seen the meme that circulated wildly after the Inauguration on 20 January. Bernie, the benevolent socialist, attended the ceremony in mask and bright knitted mittens. He lent his iconic views of a new socialist America in his attire, which featured sensible warmth, knitted mittens and a hidden smile. We think.

The visual meme appealed to a bi-partisan sector of the voting public who laughed with and against the views he espoused in his dynamic run for the Democratic nomination.

In his way, he shared a lot with Mr. Trump. Neither were representative of the mainstream thinking of the two traditional parties. Mr. Trump wanted to bring back an older view of America, the one in which it was great. Mr. Saunders had a new view. For the Democrats, it was acceptable except for a couple things. His way forward and embrace of a Socialist ethos was considered un-electable. Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden both sought to undermine him, not for his ideas but for his label.

That is what we have this week, with 30-odd Executive Orders for all sorts of things signed out in his first week on the job. He apparently drafted then in a flurry of activity unusual for a man of his age and energy. It is a pretty amazing list. It includes prohibitions on using the name of the country of origin for the now suddenly diminishing threat of Coronavirus. Stipulating who can use which bathrooms or compete in which sports. Mandating the use of electric cars to subdue CO2 emissions, which will require extraordinary extraction of rare earths. Some chuckled at that, since calling EVs “renewable” (like those windmills) is only correct in that we will have to renew and replace the batteries and blades every twenty years. We will charge the EVs with a diminishing number of coal-fired power plants through a network of charging stations yet unbuilt. It is quite an agenda item and not entirely popular.

While not unanticipated, it was the stolid face of Joe from Scranton that sold us on the notion that he would be a normal President with solid values and nothing crazy would happen. That was Humpty’s meme, too.

I saw the doctored image of the Bernie figure inserted near the epic figure of the most famous woman of modern Naples. Her place of business was on the wall between the NATO base in Bagnoli and the Navy base in Agnano, where Fleet Landing swept sailors ashore from their gray steel floating homes for liberty in vibrant Naples. It is said her career began soon after U.S. forces liberated the area in WWII. Her nickname from the sailors was “Humpty Dumpty,” though of course it was not her real one. Her legend will endure as long as a few generations of American servicemen survive from those times. Before the European Union. Before all the good new ideas.

I never got a chance to meet her, though I often passed her place of business on the way up the hill from the harbor to the Headquarters complex. She had entered into semi-retirement by my time in the Fleet, but she was famous world-wide since Naples was a regular port visit in the Med for units assigned to the Sixth Fleet. Her fame was solidified in sea stories of all sorts on all the world oceans. A real image circulated a few years ago of her seated on that low stone wall with a younger woman purported to be her daughter. It was the visual personification of a story of endurance in tough times.

I have not managed to work my way through the entire mound of paperwork filed by the new administration. It is an interesting approach that used to go through Congress. The approach now is to avoid contentious debate in a House and Senate with narrow margins and simply use Executive Orders to accomplish the mission, which I understand to be the transformation of America. It certainly seems that way.

But like Bernie and Humpty, it is a transformation that is not exactly what it appears to be. Later today, a marvelous sunny but chill winter day in Virginia, I may very well need gloves to sit on the fence out in front of The Farm.

I will still be able to wave at the cars that infrequently pass, though the mask will possibly obscure my grin.

Copyright 2021 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com