East Race Waterway
East Race Waterway is effectively a water-based amusement park. But of a much different kind than usual. It was created from the ruins of a canal build in the 1840’s that became part of an economic plan which eventually bankrupted the whole state. It was a representative of the American production economy which died in the 1970’s and then was brought back to life in the 1990’s through investment and change to meet the consumer economy of present-day America. As a result, it is a symbol of the things that can be done to transform from producer to consumer economy.
Mayor Quimby
The self-interested, bloviating, disconnected, Kennedy-style speaking gladhanding Mayor from The Simpsons is forwarded by Buttigieg himself as the very symbol of the type of local politician he most desperately wanted to avoid becoming. Quimby has become a notorious icon of the stereotypically corrupt politician over the many decades in which The Simpsons has aired and Buttigieg’s incorporation of him as symbol of what not to become seems to make him a true rarity.
The Murder House
In 2012 the city of South Bend experienced a rare double homicide I which both victims were teenagers. Just a few years later another teen was murdered at the very same address. The Mayor drives there himself, not as part of a photo-op, just to get an idea of what is going on and meets the mother of the latest victim. She recognizes him as not just the Mayor, but that they went to the same school. An emotional connection is made and she is given a manner of relief despite Mayor Pete’s own admission that nothing he said to her was particularly profound. The encounter makes him realize he is a symbol himself, but the anecdote for the reader becomes a symbol of profound value of politicians doing nothing more than demonstrating they have the capacity for empathy.
Parades
Notoriously, Donald Trump once considered holding a Soviet-style military parade down the streets of D.C. complete with tanks and other shows of force. The purpose was not to show off America’s might, but to honor his own delusional idea of himself as a dictator beloved by the population as their dear leader. This is the Quimby view of parades. Mayor Pete describes another perspective: the presence of political representatives—especially the chief executive—at a parade is a symbol about the bond of community. Sitting in honor in parade is transformed from becoming the object of attention and directed outward into becoming the symbol of community involvement and citizen action.
Military Intelligence
“Military intelligence” is infamous termed an oxymoron, of course, and usually just to make a joke but it is one of those truths barely veiled by the humor. The paradox of military intelligence is symbolized by the fact that—during the height of the post-911 build military build-up—the recruiters who took down Buttigieg’s information mistakenly recorded that his minor degree at Harvard had been “aerobics” instead of what it actually was: Arabic Studies.
