A Southwest airline pilot has caused a national ruckus in the US on a flight from Houston, signing off his weather and visibility outlook for passengers with “Let’s Go Brandon”.
The airline has issued an apology and launched an investigation.
Who is Brandon? And why are so many Americans suddenly cheering for him?
If you could get to the US tomorrow, these are questions you’d be asking.
On planes, at baseball games, emblazoned on T-shirts and bumper stickers, the encouragement has proved infectious, even spawning a hit rap song that’s soared to number 1 on Apple’s iTunes.
It turns out the phrase is code, a cheeky repudiation of President Biden and the mainstream media, with the most unlikely of origins.
A month ago NBC anchor Kelli Stavast was interviewing NASCAR driver Brandon Brown, after his victory at an Alabama superspeedway.
The rowdy crowd behind Brown began chanting “F..k Joe Biden”.
Stavast, either in a sign of emerging deafness or a brilliant future career in crisis management — it remains unclear — gave birth to the biggest political meme of the decade.
“As you can hear the chants from the crowd, ‘Let’s Go Brandon’,” she said, over the din of the crowd and car engines.
‘Let’s Go Brandon’ has spread like wildfire since, a catch all for pent up anger about the Biden presidency and mainstream news reporting that appears to some Americans to deliberately obfuscate the truth to protect Democrat politicians, especially the increasingly doddery US President.
The Republican governor of Texas has tweeted support for Brandon, US senators, including former presidential candidate Ted Cruz, and congressmen have posed with ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ signs and face masks.
Crowds cheered for Brandon at the final rallies of the Republican candidate for Governor of Virginia, Glenn Youngkin, at today’s state election.
Donald Trump’s money raising apparatus has even offered Let’s Go Brandon T-shirt to anyone who donates more than $45.
Nine million people watched the former president and his wife Melania laughing at an Atlanta baseball game on Saturday, when the crowd below them broke spontaneously broke out into ‘Let’s Go Brandon’.
The popular chant has focused attention on the President’s falling approval rating, down to around 42 per cent from 53 per cent in April. A prominent NBC poll released on Sunday revealed over 70 per cent of Americans thought the nation was “going in the wrong direction”.
It‘s naturally infuriated Democrats. YouTube has banned the rap hit, citing “medical misinformation”.
Journalists have condemned the call as vulgar, akin to yelling “Long Live ISIS” according to a CNN reporter. The Associated Press journalist on the flight, Colleen Long, was so shocked she was almost escorted off the flight for demanding staff open the cockpit door so she could get answers.
For all the outrage at overt Brandon supporters, accusations of vulgarity and disrespect for the office of president, what’s been missed is, on the contrary, the remarkable politeness of this group.
Lucky AP and CNN weren’t at the 2018 Tony Awards, where Robert De Niro enjoyed a standing ovation from fellow Hollywood stars, watched by millions, after making a highly political speech in which he said: “It’s no longer down with Trump, it’s F..k Trump.” Imagine their disapproval
In October last year rapper Fifty Cent tweeted “F..k Donald Trump” to his millions of followers. A month later a journalist in New York’s Time Square was drowned out by calls of “F..k Donald Trump”, as she tried to report the result of the presidential election.
Even before Trump was elected president rappers were producing popular tracks titled “F..k Donald Trump”, watched more than 32 million times and never blocked by YouTube.
Many Brandon supporters, it seems, however passionate, prefer to vent their feelings via a euphemism rather than crude language.
Obscene language and personal insults have become ever more common in political fights, as fewer activists are able to articulate a philosophical position of much coherence.
But the idea one side of politics is worse than the other is ridiculous.
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