Procrastinet

51% - Part I

filed under: Hey, What's The Big Idea

There are so many responses to the Bush victory that it's hard to know where to start. I'll lay them out in individual posts.

An analogy:

A five year old child's grandmother is sick. The child overhears a doctor telling his father that the grandmother may die. The child, being five, only barely understands the concept of death.

The child goes to his father and says "Daddy, is Grandma going to die?"

The father says "Well, son, we hope not. Grandma is going to get all the best medicine and care, and we think she'll get better. What I need from you is to be a big boy, and be strong."

The child says "Daddy, what does 'death' mean?"

The father says "Well, son, death is something that you hopefully don't have to worry about for a long, long time. But it's part of life and at some point everyone has to learn how to deal with that."

This conversation, obviously, leaves the child feeling fairly funky. It relies on a capacity for adult understanding that the child may or may not possess. But it sets the stage for a healthy integration of a very difficult concept, and it can absorb reality as it happens.

Here's another father dealing with his son in the same scenario:

The child goes to the father and says "Daddy, is Grandma going to die?"

The father says, "Son, don't be silly, of course Grandma's not going to die. Grandma's a good woman."

The son says "Daddy, what does 'death' mean?"

The father says "What the heck are you doing talking about death? Did that nasty old Doctor scare you? You don't have to worry about death because you're a good boy. Now here's some candy - run along now and play."

There's no question that the second kid leaves the conversation feeling way better than the first kid did.

Problem is - what if Grandma dies?

So Dad #1 is the Kerry campaign, Dad #2 is the Bush campaign. And 51% of America chose to be Kid #2, feeling better about themselves and Grandma's health.

But the problem is, Grandma really is sick. And not only is "Dad" blowing smoke up the kid's ass about it, but he's not even making sure Grandma gets her medicine. He's checked her out of the hospital and has her on the back porch, pumping her full of vitamins and making her run on a treadmill, because "hey, that's healthy stuff, so that'll help!"

If Grandma dies, there's no pretending she's fine any more. And at some point, Kid #2 is going to look at Dad and go "Dude... what the fuck is WRONG with you?!"

Posted by rjt at November 3, 2004 03:13 PM