If I were a religious person, I might wonder about that fly landing on Mike Pence's head. "That's no ordinary fly!" I'd say to myself. "That's Beelzebub!" Yes, that demonic fly landing on his head was there to show support. Attracted by the evil embodied in his support of Donald Trump--you lie down with devils and you get up with flies--that whopper of an insect settled comfortably on his snowy pate, rubbed its little forefeet, and smiled for the cameras.
Beelzebub has a long and honored literary and cultural history. He's best supporting devil, second only to Satan, in Milton's Paradise Lost--"next himself in power, and next in crime"--that's Milton's Beelzebub. Also, "Long after known in Palestine"(where the VP was burned in effigy a few years ago.) Beelzebub's the right hand man. In Milton's words:
He's the one
than whom,
Satan except, none higher sat, with grave
Aspect he rose, and in his rising seemed
Second only to POTUS, Pence will, as we all know, take over if his boss succumbs to COVID. In Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, "a strong castle has been built and its captain is named Beelzebub."
This pillar of state is crumbling. The Prince of Lies is still on steroids. His sidekick? Maybe we should just call him "Pence on Fire."
I thought the same thing about that fly! Having grown up in the south, flies are the mark of the devil. They congregate at sites of flesh-based corruption and accompany death and decay. Pence serves a prince of darkness, a maggot king. Born again Trump supporters will be worried for sure, even if scientists suspect it was Pence's hair gel that attracted the critter!
ReplyDeleteMaggot king indeed! Brrrr. Maybe that fly's a COVID carrier . . .
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