It's not about the building.
Well, I say that, but also it is very much about the building - the history, the physical costs, the fact that the East Wing will never exist again even if we end up rebuilding it. The parts of this whole thing that are about the building are very much still about the building, and this should not be forgotten in the grander scheme of things.
But also, in an even much realer way, it is not about the building. It's the microcosm.
It's a perfect encapsulation of the past ten years all rolled up into one iconic photograph that should forever be appended to his administration in every news report, museum, and history book moving forward.
It's about how one person can, illegally, against both the will of the people and the actual very real laws against him doing exactly this, just go ahead and destroy both the literal and figurative foundations of this nation just because it's something he wanted to do fifteen years ago and was told no.
It's about how he will, also in a very real way, face absolutely zero consequences for doing so.
It's about how everything he does is something that, individually, would be enough to tank his position forever, except because he's the perfect figurehead puppet and the specialest boy in the world, the very people whose job it is to stop this sort of thing are cheering him on.
It is a metaphor and a representation of literally everything he has done in this office (and, also, in his private life up beforehand), all rolled up into the easiest thing to hold up and point to and say "this. this is what is wrong with the picture."
It may not be the worst thing he's done in the last ten years. In fact, it absolutely is not the worst thing he's done in the last ten years. But the reason we're so upset about it, even those of us who don't particularly care about the building itself normally, is because it's the entirety of the whole motherfucking Thing About Him in microcosm. It's the best sparknotes abridged study guide to The Art Of The Whole Fucking Deal With This Motherfucker And Those That Enable Him Along The Way.
It's not about the building. A building is a building. Canada burned it down before and we were fine*.
It's about the fucking microcosm.
