Air Force One
When Air Force One lands at some airport, it is not alone. A huge C-17 aircraft is always in tow, filled to the brim with all the various accoutrement necessary for a Presidential visit, including the monstrous Presidential limo designed to withstand almost any attack short of a missile. Taken together, both aircraft serves as demonstrably symbolic assertion of the incredible power America invests—literally in the blink of an eye—in one arbitrarily chosen person, whether capable or deserving or trustworthy or none of those things
Major Donahue
The war in Afghanistan ended for Buttigieg and Major Mike Donahue one day apart. For Buttigieg, his service ended with a plane ride home. For Donahue, the war ended by becoming the victim of a suicide attack in Kabul. The juxtaposition of how the war service experiences of two men in the same unit who knew each other and respected each but were not especially close came to an end becomes the book’s most chilling symbol of the utter randomness of life; an exhibition of how just a single decision here or coincidence there could have produced exactly the opposite outcome and, subsequently, impacted unknown hundreds, thousands or even millions of other lives.
The Studebaker Building
South Bend became synonymous with the Studebaker automobile with the founding of the company’s headquarters and the construction of a mammoth six-story high building stretching out for a fifth of a mile. The building was a symbol of South Bend’s success when at full operating capacity but became, in the Mayor’s words, “the biggest physical symbol of our city’s decline” after Studebaker ceased production.
Jif Peanut Butter
The familiar red, blue and green logo Jif peanut butter is tattooed on the tricep of Buttigieg’s husband, Chasten. It is a tribute to his father, Terry, who grew up poor and worked hard to establish middle class success. Growing up, access to Jif peanut butter had been a measurement of a good life to Terry and he promised his own family that he would never fail to make a living capable of providing them with Jif on the shelf whenever they wanted. Jif thus becomes an unlikely symbol of nothing less than attaining the American Dream.
Memories Pizza
Whether intentionally or not, a long and involved section of the book ostensibly about how the conservatism of Mike Pence threatened to bring lasting economic devastation upon the entire state of Indiana winds up becoming an anecdote that symbolizes the entire American zeitgeist of the Age of Trump. Two short paragraphs snuggled in the midst of this longer section details how a small independently owned and operated pizza joint responding positively to Pence’s legislation on a local newscast is the definitive statement of where America was headed before Trump took office and where it firmly sat after Trump was voted out of office:
“Only in America in 2015 could a small town pizza provider profess prejudice in the name of Christianity before a local TV crew, be mocked around the country on late-night television, and then be made rich beyond belief, all in a matter of days.”
