The thing with anecdotal data is that it requires a control to be considered worth accepting into one’s larger understanding of a current state. Sure, you may argue – and credibly so – that a frayed, tattered, and essentially destroyed TRUMP-VANCE 2024 flag flying over some douchebag Long Islander’s motorboat in itself is a self-contained anecdote on just how much that fan of the now-current regime actually cares about how his support for the Orange Tyrant presents to others in his socio-political cohort. After all, why not just take it down and get a new MAGA flag to put there?

Then of course there’s the symbolism of it: A two year-old emblem of support for then-resurgent “King Over The Water” disintegrating well past the edges like so many promises of economic greatness, an end to rampant crime and political corruption, the truth about Jeffrey Epstein’s atrocities, cheaper groceries, and so on and so forth. That’s even before the blasphemous positioning of the Trump-Vance flag above that of Old Glory, itself defiled by a torn upper hoist.

Viewed from the side whilst a westerly wind is catching, the US Flag appeared to be hung upside down in the universal sign of distress and, yeah, could go on for quite awhile about that element to the overall symbolism. But in the interest of journalistic integrity this site has a duty to be clear that it was not intentionally hung upside down, just merely neglected by the patriotic boater, whose otherwise pristinely-maintained 21st century watercraft is berthed at a mooring that costs untold thousands of dollars per summer to rent – or a mortgage plus association fees to own.

All subject to the capricious whims of Neptune, who can fuck it up whenever he so pleases.

However, as hinted, there is a control here: That small, tattered Trump-Vance 2024 flag now flies alone above the vessels parked in the harbor in the small beach cabin community of Kismet on the western, heterosexual-dominated end of New York’s Fire Island, a clear reversal of the ubiquity of such displays in the very same place on Fourth of July weekend six years ago. It was then, in the heat of the apocalyptic 2020 presidential campaign, that no fewer than six – and likely more – of the 15 to 20 or so watercraft typically moored in the modest harbor were flying flags calling for the Orange God Emperor’s reelection. That’s not to mention that the Kismet Inn, a century-old local institution dedicated to serving grossly overpriced drinks and sub-mediocre food, was also flying a Trump 2020 flag on its tall pole in the front of the establishment, as were more than a few of the charming vacation houses lining Kismet’s grid of narrow, mostly pedestrian-only streets.

This year? Well there’s about 0.65 Trump flags in town. Even the Kismet ice cream stand’s manager, whose professionalism could be encapsulated in the XXXL Hunter Biden behind bars t-shirt he proudly wore behind the counter in 2023, has dialed it back and switched to a less combative and far more perennial XXXL expression of his commitment to conservative political values as he oversees a team of teenage girls filling $9 cups of soft-serve ice cream. Rainbow sprinkles included.

Now is there a dispositive difference between July 2020 and July 2026? Of course. Trump’s already back in power so why continue flying the flag? At the basest read one could say it’s like a campaign airing TV ads after election day whether their principal won or lost. There’s no practical point.

However little is practical in American political culture. Ronald Reagan died 22 years before a middle-aged Fire Island ice cream store manager with ear piercings spent $18.99 plus shipping on a t-shirt bearing his image. He wears it to express his commitment to the idea of Reagan, a free-market capitalist vehemently opposed to wanton protectionism just as the manager’s all-but-certain ownership of Red Dawn on DVD expresses his commitment to the idea of violent partisan guerrilla warfare against a fictional Russian-Cuban-Mexican communist occupation of the United States.

It’s the manager’s quite-literally surface-level statement of lifelong rhetorical values and antipathy toward the “commies” who would dare approach his employer’s ice cream stand with a credit or debit card and purchase three $15 Oreo milkshakes via a Square Pay POS that prompts them to tip a 10 percent minimum unless they affirmatively press “No tip” or manually enter a custom amount.

Now contrast the July 2026 invocation of the long-dead 40th president with the July 2021 erasure of the 48th vice president by a Pennsylvania voter whom obviously wished Mike Pence dead for his refusal to participate in the destructive failed coup attempt of six months earlier.

Probably preferably via the lynching. But wherever and however the Poconos-area MAGAmerican wanted Pence removed from his mortal coil, the real statement was the rest of the sign, an open scream of defiance against the reality of Trump’s disgraceful reelection defeat and exile to Florida.

More pertinently however, there was effort put into it. Obviously not as much effort as there should have been since maybe a few strips of red electrical tape crossing over Pence’s name would have been a more stylish means of communicating that the former veep was dead to this MAGA Pennsylvanian. There was effort nonetheless, the devotion to the then-ex-president clear as day.

Does this home still have a Trump sign in front of it (provided that the MAGA resident still lives there and has not moved or died)? Prior to this year the answer would’ve almost certainly been yes. Now, honestly, having seen them disappear almost completely from Kismet – save for the 2/3rds of the one Trump-Vance 2024 flag – it’s a fair question. Hell there wasn’t even a red MAGA hat to be seen here over the last 24 hours in this otherwise hardcore pro-Murica fuck yeah bailiwick. Those were once as common a sight as cargo shorts, White Claws, and Tommy Bahama-branded beach chairs.

And the “Thin Blue Line”/its “Thin Red/Blue” variant, its hoist now occupying the spot on the Kismet Inn’s pole that a “TRUMP 2020 – NO MORE BULLSHIT” flag once did with its garishly bright colors.

There’s a lot of that one still flying proudly in a place frequented by Caucasian-American first responders that can tell you all sorts of horrible stories about the kind of culture that Joe Biden’s 2020 election win allowed to flourish in a crack house in Canarsie, Brooklyn. The flag officially banned in 2023 from any sort of public display by the LAPD for what then-Chief Michel Moore said was its association with and cooption by those with “undemocratic, racist, and bigoted views.”

Which is one way to put it since the flag itself was first introduced in 2014 during the “Blue Lives Matter” backlash to Black Lives Matter protests… Before Trump rose to power and took over as the living symbol and relentless champion of undemocratic, racist, and bigoted views.

Would hate to think that it was the price of fishing gear and Corona Light continuing to rise after President Law and Order returned to power to cause all but 0.65 of the boat flags honoring his magnificence to disappear rather than the savage assault he incited against law enforcement on January 6th, 2021, but here we are, with his personal appeal to this cop-centric demo evidently on the wane. Tiny, molecular, anecdotal data confirming the priors of those who wish him drowned in the Great South Bay, less scientifically valuable than even a focus group.

Then there’s the reality that the stakes this November vary by what kind of voter you are – and these guys may not be the Midterm type anyway. Still, that and all the other 2020 vs 2026 qualifiers don’t mean that those who had a bad feeling in their gut scrolling through TikTok in October 2024 won’t recognize something to the opposite effect here, something few if any of the boaters and cops and firefighters and sunburned white people would likely be terribly honest about right now.

So maybe ignore what they’re saying and focus instead on what they’re doing, like not bothering to show up to the Orange Caesar’s Great American State Fair (it had opened for the day this morning to what looks to be a single attendee when the Fox hosts paid to be there rambled about something else entirely) or at least taking down their frayed Trump flag if they’re not going to buy a new one.