The Democrats Dance in their Hats

The sombrero memes furor makes me think the old saying needs to be amended: “first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” It seems to work on the downslope as well: “First they win, then you become an object of fun, then they can safely ignore you.” We seem to be at the object of fun stage now at which the MAGA right has won the culture wars. Th pretensions of the left begin to look absurd.

Part of the power of the sombrero meme is that Hakim Jeffries, Chuck Shumer, and the elected left generally is always so grim and so angry. It is hard to picture them smiling, or many other prominent leftist politicians. In the case of Shumer, I visualize a smirk, which is not the same thing. That makes them especially mockable—their apparent sense of superiority and self-importance.

The measure of the meme’s effectiveness is the criticisms leveled by the left. I have heard it called “insane,” “filth,” “disgusting,” and, of course, “racist.”

Is the sombrero and the mariachi music racist? It is certainly stereotyped, but there is nothing offensive about the stereotype. Part of the delight of the meme is that it expresses liberation from the humourless leftist prohibition on ethnic jokes. Why wouldn’t a Mexican be proud of mariachi music and a distinctive ethnic hat?

I try to imagine the Irish equivalent; as that is my own primary ethnicity. An image of Trump, or RFK Jr., or Nicole Shanahan, with white clay pipes in their mouths and stepdancers throwing up gold pieces? Nope, I still think it is funny and somehow liberating.

The sombrero meme does play on the idea of Mexicans as “the other.” This could be worrying. But in this case, they genuinely are the other, and that is the whole point: extending taxpayer-funded health care to non-citizens. So it has to be fair comment.

And I like mariachi music.