December 10, 2015
-
Blowing Hard
A cartoon I saw about 65 years ago in a schoolbook depicted an argument between the wind and the sun. The wind said, "I can make that man take off his coat" and he blew and he blew and the harder he blew, the tighter the man wrapped the coat around his body. "Watch this," said the sun, and beams of sunshine aimed the man's way quickly led to the shedding of the garment in question.
America's most prominent blowhard, Donald J. Trump, is attempting to blow away the ISIS problem by blowing as hard as he can at a fearful segment of the Republican Party. I and they are being blown away, all right, but in different directions. I guess some metaphors have expiration dates.
I used to be fond of saying that I'm 99.9999% sure that the sun will come up tomorrow, but 100% sure that Trump will never be elected president.
But after listening to Mara Liasson's segment on NPR's Morning Edition this morning, I'm reconsidering. NPR's best political reporter attended a Trump Focus Group meeting last night, and it's apparent that the harder the wind blows -- in this case, wind = criticism of Trump -- the tighter they wrap their loyalty headbands around what they laughingly refer to as their brains. (Ahem. The Return of the Metaphor.)
And sadly, if Trump supporters could read my writing (can they even read? STOP, Twoberry, insults are like the wind. Be sunny) they would react as they did at the Focus Group session. After being shown anti-Trump ads and in other ways being exposed to counter-arguments, a poll of their opinions revealed that they were even more passionately supportive of Trump than before attempts were made to convince them to think rationally.
But relax. Or R-E-L-A-X as Aaron Rodgers would say. Or at least last year he said that. The Green Bay Packers will be fine, and so will this country. Trump is not going to be elected despite the apparent willingness of his supporters to crawl over glass to vote for him. He's supported by 30% of Republicans being polled on the subject, which I expect is LESS than 30% of Republicans in general, and way way less than 30% of the voting public.
If necessary, the Democrats in November 2016 will bring out a ground game that -- to use Trump's language -- "you wouldn't believe." They'll get out the vote, is what I'm saying. R-E-L-A-X.
Have I convinced myself yet?
Comments (2)
Love the metaphor -- but I think it can be expanded to ISIS as well -- the harder they blow the scarier they become! As a Southern Californian, it's difficult not to feel affected by recent events!
It is a fine line between ignoring the problem to decrease the impact and ignoring the issue and by inaction condone/permit continued violence. I am hopeful that our government can find their way through these difficult descisions - to the benefit of our country and our people (all of our people)!
Comments are closed.