The Effigy From Delaware

Before the American Revolution, there was a quaint New England holiday known as Pope Night. Every November 5th, working class Bostonians would gather, drink, and—as their descendants would do after the Red Sox finally won the World Series—cause property damage. Then they’d cap off the night by getting a big wooden statue of the pope, and they’d fight for the honor of setting fire to it. As you might have guessed, Pope Night was a descendent of Guy Fawkes Night, also known as Bonfire Night, when good Protestants commemorate capturing the infamous gunpowder plotter by burning him alive, over and over, year after year.

The art of burning effigies of your political opponents is a very old practice, and it’s still alive and well. It’s a visually striking way of showing somebody exactly what you think should happen to them, in this life or the next. And of course, an effigy doesn’t always represent just one person. People didn’t burn images of the Pope or Guy Fawkes because of their politics, or their taste in hats.

Those effigies burned because they were Catholic, and the ones who burned them were Protestant.

Not all effigies are made of wood, and not all fires are hot. Take for example the effigy that’s been simmering in Congress since she assumed office early this year: Delaware representative Sarah McBride. Congresswoman McBride has been in the hot seat due in large part to the unhinged transphobia of Nancy Mace, representing South Carolina’s 1st district.

Since McBride won election to the House, Mace has made harassing McBride her primary political cause. She’s introduced efforts to ban trans women from Federal bathrooms, harassed McBride personally on several occasions, and Tweeted about her extensively. And on February 8th, she took great pleasure as McBride was introduced as “the gentleman from Delaware”.

Mace has gone on record that she finds it offensive that a “man in a dress” could possibly be considered her equal. Of course, when she says “man in a dress”, what she means is “tranny”, because Mace actually respects men.

For McBride’s part, she has chosen to take the high road. She’s said that she is not in office to fight about bathrooms, but to fight for her constituents’ interests. She has also stated that she believes that the Trump administration’s assaults on transgender rights is simply a distraction from their pillaging of the US economy. If she has to be barred from the bathrooms, that’s fine (she has a private one in her office anyway). If she is misgendered, she will bare it with grace. Let the Republican Party disrespect her all they like; she has a job to do.

This move has been celebrated by certain segments of the Liberal establishment as incredibly classy and powerful. But the thing about effigies is that it doesn’t matter how good they look as they burn; once there’s only ashes left, the message remains. The message is a simple one: the person holding the torch is the one in charge.

Sarah McBride doesn’t want to be the face of trans liberation, and she sure as hell doesn’t want to be a hero. She wants the Liberal dream, which is to keep her head down, show her fiscal bonafides, and make incremental change when possible. And she probably hoped to be the first trans woman in Congress during the Harris administration, instead of… this. And it’s understandable why she might hesitate to make a fuss when she faces blatant discrimination. Perhaps she is worried that her constituents will see her as more focused on her own issues than theirs. Maybe she’s worried that if she begins fighting for her own rights, then that’s all she’ll ever do.

And of course, she might be worried that taking a hardline stand on trans rights will get her killed.

The problem is that the world doesn’t care what she wants. The Republican Party is piling the wood up and lighting their matches. Being a trans woman and watching Congress misgender McBride on record feels a lot like being a Catholic on Pope Night. It might not be us on the bonfire, but all we can do is watch as we are burned in effigy.

Over and over again.