There’s a large playground called Washington D.C. There children disguised as adults play. Lately Nancy and Donald and Mitch have manipulated the ups and downs of the seesaws and backs and forths of the swings. They don’t like each other, and they relish the taunts and threats of the childhood life.
Donald wishes to build a wall most folks don’t want so people who don’t look like him and most of his followers won’t enter the country. Nancy says it’s wrong and she’s going to stop it. Mitch sits on the sidelines waiting for Donald to tell him it’s time to play.
Turns out the fight between Nancy and Donald is creating financial problems for 800,000 furloughed workers and inconveniences for millions more who need government services. But that’s not a worry because Nancy and Donald and Mitch aren’t going hungry.
Nancy believes she has a great idea. Donald plans to give a big speech, one someone in his position has delivered every year for ages. It’s an opportunity to say how brilliant he is and tell about all the wonderful accomplishments he’s achieved. It puts him at center stage with a national audience and there’s nothing he likes more. The hitch is he needs Nancy’s permission.
What an opportunity for Nancy! Why, she thinks, I’ll ask him to delay his talk until he gives in on the wall and that’ll deny him the attention he craves. What a little boy he is, she thinks with scorn. She realizes it might be petulant to just refuse him, so she justifies the suggestion by noting security can’t be assured since so many government workers are off the job.
Now Donald thinks anyone messing with him should be placed on the playground merry-go-round and spun to oblivion. What a little girl she is, he thinks with scorn. He knows Nancy is planning to visit troops and will fly on military planes. It’s all hush hush because the enemy might just do something bad if they knew about it. Donald realizes he can’t tell Nancy not to go. However, he controls the military and so he cancels use of planes, making a public suggestion she fly commercial which would be a joy to the enemy. But he needs his own justification so he announces she should stay around to negotiate instead of taking off to the other side of the world.
There’s not much to like about any of this.
Nancy’s argument makes little sense to me. I can’t believe security surrounding Donald and all of Nancy’s colleagues isn’t maintained at the highest level despite the work stoppage. I’m sure such jobs are considered essential and that the men and women performing them are motivated independent of personal political preference.
Donald’s argument seems to have more merit. Certainly, in a crisis caused by the feud it makes sense to remain nearby ready to negotiate. The problem here is that Donald has no real intention of negotiating and knows Nancy staying around will have no effect. But canceling the trip satisfies the need for retaliation. Nevertheless, his stance seems the more reasonable.
What about poor Mitch? Hey, he says to Donald, Can I play soon?
Sure, Donald assures him. Tell you what. I’m going to use this weekend I kept Nancy home to propose a compromise which asks for everything I want and a small part of what they want. You can put forth legislation to accomplish that.
Mitch is pleased. He knows he’s still irrelevant, but maybe the action will hide his cowardice regarding fulfilling his oath to protect the Constitution.
It’s time for our leaders to leave the playground behind, to act like adults, and to do the right thing. Sometimes the right thing is hard to determine. But that’s why children simply aren’t up to the task.
Donald wishes to build a wall most folks don’t want so people who don’t look like him and most of his followers won’t enter the country. Nancy says it’s wrong and she’s going to stop it. Mitch sits on the sidelines waiting for Donald to tell him it’s time to play.
Turns out the fight between Nancy and Donald is creating financial problems for 800,000 furloughed workers and inconveniences for millions more who need government services. But that’s not a worry because Nancy and Donald and Mitch aren’t going hungry.
Nancy believes she has a great idea. Donald plans to give a big speech, one someone in his position has delivered every year for ages. It’s an opportunity to say how brilliant he is and tell about all the wonderful accomplishments he’s achieved. It puts him at center stage with a national audience and there’s nothing he likes more. The hitch is he needs Nancy’s permission.
What an opportunity for Nancy! Why, she thinks, I’ll ask him to delay his talk until he gives in on the wall and that’ll deny him the attention he craves. What a little boy he is, she thinks with scorn. She realizes it might be petulant to just refuse him, so she justifies the suggestion by noting security can’t be assured since so many government workers are off the job.
Now Donald thinks anyone messing with him should be placed on the playground merry-go-round and spun to oblivion. What a little girl she is, he thinks with scorn. He knows Nancy is planning to visit troops and will fly on military planes. It’s all hush hush because the enemy might just do something bad if they knew about it. Donald realizes he can’t tell Nancy not to go. However, he controls the military and so he cancels use of planes, making a public suggestion she fly commercial which would be a joy to the enemy. But he needs his own justification so he announces she should stay around to negotiate instead of taking off to the other side of the world.
There’s not much to like about any of this.
Nancy’s argument makes little sense to me. I can’t believe security surrounding Donald and all of Nancy’s colleagues isn’t maintained at the highest level despite the work stoppage. I’m sure such jobs are considered essential and that the men and women performing them are motivated independent of personal political preference.
Donald’s argument seems to have more merit. Certainly, in a crisis caused by the feud it makes sense to remain nearby ready to negotiate. The problem here is that Donald has no real intention of negotiating and knows Nancy staying around will have no effect. But canceling the trip satisfies the need for retaliation. Nevertheless, his stance seems the more reasonable.
What about poor Mitch? Hey, he says to Donald, Can I play soon?
Sure, Donald assures him. Tell you what. I’m going to use this weekend I kept Nancy home to propose a compromise which asks for everything I want and a small part of what they want. You can put forth legislation to accomplish that.
Mitch is pleased. He knows he’s still irrelevant, but maybe the action will hide his cowardice regarding fulfilling his oath to protect the Constitution.
It’s time for our leaders to leave the playground behind, to act like adults, and to do the right thing. Sometimes the right thing is hard to determine. But that’s why children simply aren’t up to the task.
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