Southwest Airlines is investigating an incident that supposedly occurred on a Friday morning flight between Houston and Albuquerque in which the pilot of the aircraft allegedly uttered the phrase “Let’s go Brandon” over the intercom.
“Let’s go Brandon” has become a meme expressing dissatisfaction with President Joe Biden ever since NASCAR driver Brandon Brown won his first race at the Talledega Superspeedway in Alabama on October 2. While Brown was being interviewed live on NBC television, a chant of “F*ck Joe Biden” broke out behind the interview, and the NBC reporter misinterpreted the chant to be, “Let’s go Brandon.”
And just like that, a new political meme was born.
No recording of the event on the Southwest flight has surfaced to date — just the narrative of AP reporter Colleen Long, who reported, “On Friday morning on a Southwest flight from Houston to Albuquerque, the pilot signed off his greeting over the public address system with the phrase, to audible gasps from some passengers.”
“Audible gasps?” Really? How many of the passengers snickered at the comment?
Despite the apparent lack of recorded evidence of the event, Southwest is conducting an internal investigation about the event, saying that people should not take one pilot’s political views as Southwest Airlines’ viewpoint.
Southwest Airlines has been under a lot of media scrutiny lately with the cancellation of more than 2,000 flights earlier this month, likely due to the vaccine mandates that the airline was pushing.The airline issued a statement about the alleged “Let’s go Brandon” event on Sunday:
The Southwest Team takes pride in providing a welcoming, comfortable, safe, and respectful environment for the millions of Customers who fly with us each year. Southwest does not condone Employees sharing their personal political opinions while on the job serving our Customers, and one Employee’s individual perspective should not be interpreted as the viewpoint of Southwest and its collective 54,000 Employees.
Southwest then announced an investigation into the incident:
Southwest is conducting an internal investigation into the recently reported event and will address the situation directly with any Employee involved while continuing to remind all Employees that public expression of personal opinions while on duty is unacceptable. Southwest does not tolerate any behavior that encourages divisiveness, as it does not reflect the Southwest Hospitality and inclusiveness for which we are known and strive to provide each day on every flight.
Leftists everywhere were reliably outraged.
Tristan Snell, a lawyer and a regular commentator on CNN and MSNBC, tweeted, “Let’s Go Brandon” has become the MAGA version of “Sieg Heil.”
Another CNN analyst, Asha Rangappa, conflated “Let’s go Brandon” with outright terrorism:
Radio host Dean Obeidallah tweeted that “Southwest Airlines is now the pro-Jan 6 terrorist attack airlines.”
Meanwhile, back here in reality, we understand that “Let’s go Brandon” is simply a funny way of making an admittedly crude chant about an increasingly unpopular president (on all sides) into something more palatable for the masses.
GOP ad maker Jim Innocenzi spoke for many when he called the chant “hilarious.”
“Unless you are living in a cave, you know what it means,” Innocenzi said. “But it’s done with a little bit of a class. And if you object and are taking it too seriously, go away.”
In June of 2018, veteran actor Robert De Niro used the occasion of the nationally televised Tony Awards to utter the phrase “F*ck Trump.” This was not done on cable but broadcast television. It was not done on late-night television but in the middle of what used to be called “family hour.” De Niro was pilloried by some on the Right for being tasteless and classless, of course, but no one called him a terrorist or accused him of being an actual Nazi.
“Let’s go Brandon” is an admittedly childish meme. But it’s no more childish than the many imbecilic chants made about Trump or other figures on the Right over the years. The Left loves a catchy little meme when it’s their own. When it comes from someone else, it must be extinguished immediately.
Especially if it’s effective.
