First time I heard Shakespeare’s admonition to ‘take the tide at [full] flood’ to avoid getting grounded on a sand-bar – I was freshman in college. Shakespeare was not a *total* stranger to me – but it subsequent years I heard a lot more ‘quotable’ quotes than I ever knew existed – and somehow that one has stuck pretty fast in my memory.
The question is right now what has happened and what *is* happening in the GOP presidential primary. The easy answer is “not much.”
Actually with redistricting going on, and Congress in virtually a total deadlock it appeared that Mr. Obama was going to capture the lead almost by default since the super-committee deadlocked – and the Congress re-entered the dilly-dally mode of not doing *anything* that might be construed as giving the other side a slight opening – we appear to be dead in the water in a fairly stormy political sea. Neither sided wants to pull a ‘boner’ that would give the other side even a slight advantage.
Of course that makes all the GOP freshmen nervous. They’ve never been through one of these ‘showdowns’ before – and thus only the ‘old hands’ on both sides of the aisle are calm or shrewd enough to figure out it’s time to jump ship for the shore – or just to buckle down, and batten the hatches. None of us standing on the shore are able to be heard very clearly either. The old hands are doing their best to spread panic among the nervous nellies in the freshmen class. The ‘greybeards’ are busy doing what they can to contribute either panic or calmness in the cloak rooms. So the ‘tempest’ in a tea pot contributes its bit to the paralysis and the voting public gets more and more angry… witness the messes the masses leave in their campgrounds in the park.
It appears there’s hardly enough will to muscle down those who believe chaos is best for their status quo – and even the ‘old hands’ are loath to get their hands dirty in pulling back the grass-roots groupies. So something approaching deadlock looks as if it will be with us thorough the spring, summer, and next autumn before we’ll see anything approaching a realistic compromise. The GOP feels like they’ve been here before… and gotten ‘snockered.’ OTOH the Democrats are cheered on by the former Speaker of the house and her allies who are singing “Wait Till the Sunshines Nellie” and hoping they can drown out the frosh.
Actually the political historians are having a hey-day because they’ve not seen it this close before in such what one would have thought is a widely split electorate even within at least one of the parties.
Well – Shakespeare better shake a leg -- If we don’t end up tearing the house down like an out of control tornado (aren’t they all?) and having to rebuild from the ground up. I’m guessing until a majority of both parties finally cools it and gets back to running the country we who are riding in the back of the bus are going to have a continuing out of control electoral situation that will demand dramatic and effective enforcement eventually and that ain’t hardly gonna be pretty.
So much for the ‘inaccurate’ political weather forecast. Let’s see what next week brings forth. Sometime – somewhere cooler heads have to prevail!
Cordially, IN HIM
Jack
“JUST A MINUTE”
THE CRITICAL POINT
Just a Minute: “There is a tide in the affairs of men – which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune: omitted -- all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries.” (Wm Shakespeare, Julius Caesar Ac IV, sc III) Shakespeare’s words, allotted to Brutus, in Julius Caesar -- now weigh heavily in the counsels of Messrs Romney and Gingrich as they consider the January contests they’ll face in
Supreme European Commander Dwight Eisenhower confronted with a similar problem preparing to launch the invasion of Europe across the
The Governor and the former Speaker appear now to be the most likely front runners in the coming campaign. It is of such a weighty nature I believe the future of
<> I’m Jack Buttram. (END)
Jebco Editorial Service
E-mail n4zhk@arrl.net
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