Believe it was by Gahan Wilson; published in The New Yorker. Probably over 20 years ago.
A woman is sitting on a park bench, feeding, not actual birds, but bird-heads that are attached to the end of sticks that another person is operating. A bystander says to the woman "Ma'am, that person is making a fool out of you!"
Having had the delightful opportunity to be off-grid for 10 days, I return to the mediated political landscape and find the American people and their habits of politics and politicking are charmingly like the elderly lady on the bench, well-intentionally feeding fake pigeons.
(Did I say charmingly? Rhymes well enough with alarmingly.)
I realize this is hardly a unique insight; there are many who are screaming-silently or otherwise-that it's a fake fucking pigeon, but in the long run, most people will just notice and hear the sound of a beak tapping against pavement upon which birdseed is being scattered.
Among all the things that have happened, are happening, I guess I was prompted to write this as I read through some diary diddling about Joe Biden's potential candidacy. And despite the huge moat that Debbie Wasserman-Schultz has excavated around the Democratic presidential debates, I read, yesterday, that if Joe Biden would declare his candidacy the night before the debates, he could be included! I might rhetorically ask "Can we get any more corrupt about the process?" But then I slap myself and say: there is much more to come, no doubt.
In every "State of the Nation" address, the president always maintains "we are strong," despite bearing strong resemblance to a cosmic joke.
And the American people are good and decent people. Our hearts go out to the lowest of flying rodents, or at least anything that bears a resemblance to a pigeon.