There used to be a phrase that went something like ‘Oh no, there goes the neighbourhood’. No doubt steeped in racism, as a reaction to the first Black family to move into a white community and therefore cause trouble and push down house prices, the saying has taken on a more comical tone with time.
I have a hunch that there are more than a few people in the US who feel the same way but on a much grander scale given the relatively new occupants of the White House.
They say that good fences make good neighbours. Perhaps one of the most irksome characteristics of bad neighbours is their penchant for washing their dirty laundry in public. The latest addition to the 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW version of the Clampetts, Anthony Scaramucci, known affectionately as Mooch, has demonstrated that his modus operandi involves shaking things up, causing an uproar, often by issuing derogatory, shallow remarks about fellow ‘family’ members on social media.
But these folks aren’t just another family, and this not just another house. It’s the White House and Mooch is apparently the president’s new man. It’s not a campy sitcom, but the administration of the United States of America. Sadly the current residents of this most famous of houses, and their cohorts have ruined the neighbourhood, as it were.
But I have no doubt that the proud tradition of strength and leadership, caring and fairness, balance and kindness can be restored to this house in time. Just not with these inhabitants.
Of course in the interim, to shield the population and the world from the infantile shenanigans that have become daily features, a wall can be built. Not the one planned for along the US Mexico border, but a high wall around the White House.
This is the kind of thing that makes me fiercely grateful I don’t live in DC.