Monday, May 03, 2010

Why This Fall's Congressional Elections Matter...

I was having dinner with a good friend of mine the other night and he asked me to explain why this fall's midterm elections where "such a big deal" Here's what I told him...

Imagine about nine and half years ago, you lent your car to this guy. Now you didn't know this guy all that well, but you knew his Parents, and you liked them, so you figured it would be ok if he used your car for a while.

Then for the next 8 years this guy and a bunch of his friends, drove your car into the ground. They ignored rules of safe driving, ignored all the warning lights including "CHECK ENGINE NOW"! They never changed the oil, They drove the car into places the car was never meant or designed to go. They wore the tire tread down to practically nothing, and in 2008 were about to literally drive the car off a cliff in some bizarre game of "chicken", and the only thing that prevented THAT was you taking the car back, and the keys away from these guys.

So for the last year and a half or so, you have been working with a new mechanic who has been diligently working on the car, slowly repairing the massive amount of damage.  At every step this mechanic takes the time to explain exactly what the problem is and  what it will cost to fix it.

At the same time he is also smoothing things over with all of your other neighbors who have been really annoyed with you for allowing your car to be recklessly driven all over town for eight years.

On top of that, you just found out the reason that in 2008 those  guys were trying to drive the car off a cliff,  was because some of their other friends had placed huge BETS on how much damage crashing the car would cause.

Now that same bunch of drunk joy riders, who nearly totaled your car two years ago, show up and say you should hire THEM to fix the car. And their idea of fixing it, is to rip out all the safety features on the car. Take out the seat belts, remove the airbags, the shocks, the brakes, the turn signals and the mirrors. Their reason being , all those safety features were infringing on the car's "Freedom" to run.

Then they get  some of their loudest  and craziest  friends  to show up outside the garage,  and protest against the fact that the car is even being fixed at all.

So that in a nutshell IS the choice this November. Do you let the Mechanic who saved the car from the junk heap keep working on fixing it, or let the same bunch of drunk driving idiots double down on everything they did to wreck the car.

My friend looked thoughtfully out the window of the resturant and then said, "Why doesn't anyone in the Democratic Party explain it that clearly?"

That, is a really good question.... I wish I knew the answer.

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