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Jeb Bush, said the gun, and above the photo of the gun read the caption: America.
He must have felt as though he needed to say it.
Jeb Bush seemed to limp his way through the election cycle.
His campaign slogan was his own nickname punctuated with an exclamation point.
The same month he tweeted the gun photo, he had to ask supporters to clap for a speech.
His was not a virile campaign: thus, the gun.
Since the election of the 45th president, images of weaponry have surged through the social-media vernacular.
The pictures that attract the most attention dont look like Jebs.
The photos that move people look more like fashion shoots.
A gallows humor haunts the spectacle.
BITCH I SAID WE BELONG TOGETHER, blares atweetwith a picture of Mariah Carey brandishing two pistols.
And yet there is deep satisfaction to be derived from perpetuating these miniature fantasies.
Last February, Twitter users jumped on a surrealist refrain: Give Carly Rae Jepsen a sword.
Without the sword, Carly Rae is a pop star.
With it, she becomes a spiritual leader.
It stirs the air around Bennett and Spencers Twitter portraits.
And it makes a clumsy Photoshop of a beloved singer with a gun irresistible fodder for a retweet.
That the images are often crudely collaged adds to their appeal.
Giving weapons to pop stars is one strategy for laughing our way out of psychic deadlock.
Crowds turn out, and still, children sleep in cages.
Nothing happens, so women hold guns and dream.
