BY EDWIN E. VINEYARD
Does anybody recall the fable of The Scorpion and the Frog? More specifically: Has anyone in the Republican Party congressional leadership ever heard of that story? Has Rush Limbaugh or the people at Fox News heard of it?
Or, does anyone care?
As the fable goes, the scorpion left his home to see the world. Encountering a river, he said to the frog, “Take me across the river on your back.” The frog was hesitant, fearing that the scorpion would sting and kill him when the trip was nearly finished.
The scorpion reasoned with the frog, “I could not kill you, or I would die myself, for I cannot swim.” After many such reassurances the frog agreed to take the scorpion across the muddy stream. As they neared midway, the frog felt a sting in his back and his legs began to numb.
“You fool,” croaked the frog, “Now we shall both die. Why did you do that?”
The scorpion shrugged, did a little jig on the frog’s back, and said, “I could not help myself. It is my nature.”
Rush Limbaugh, the de facto leader of the Republican Party, and all his cohorts have been loudly wishing for President Obama to fail. Should we not say, “You fools! Do you really want an economic apocalypse now? Don’t you know that we shall all suffer if Obama’s efforts fail?”
In wishing failure for President Obama, they are wishing failure for the nation as a whole. They are wishing for the collapse of our financial and economic system. They are wishing millions onto the unemployed list. They are wishing the worst of hardships, homelessness, sickness, and hunger upon a sizable portion of the American people.
The recent conservative CPAC meeting involved gluttonous consumption and cheering of nihilist tirades against the democratic president and his efforts to save the nation’s economy. Not the least of those was a jumping, hopping Rush Limbaugh urging the party’s continued suicide mission. That crowd was full of would-be scorpions.
It appears that the Republicans are so wrought up with envy and hate for a very personable and popular Democratic president that they would go to any length in order to take him down. Further, they fear he might tax their wealth. Like the scorpion, these extremists would take the president down even if the country, including themselves and their constituents, go down the tube as well.
This should not go unnoticed by the Republican Party faithful – i.e. the sensible, truly “country first,” moderate elements within that political persuasion. Republicans should think at least twice before they follow Limbaugh off a cliff like a bunch of lemmings, or should we say “ditto-heads?”
Republicans need to find within their midst a voice of reason. They need to find within their collective minds an agenda of their own for curing the nation’s ills [other than tax-cuts], or else they should join with a bi-partisan team effort to pull this country back from the abyss.
All this recalls the days of the Eisenhower presidency, when the fascist, communist sniffing Joe McCarthy ran rampant over the constitutional rights of Americans bringing a noir cloud of fear over the nation. Sadly, the nation’s titular leaders feared his wild, angry, hostile, personal allegations, and would not take a stand. But it finally took only the courageous stance of the Secretary of the Army in a fair forum to expose the arrogant bully and bring him down.
So it is today with the likes of that pompous windbag who spews daily messages of hatred and nihilism over the airwaves to his followers.
Republicans must not continue to allow Limbaugh and his cohorts to usurp leadership of their party, forcing every leadership aspirant to bow before the pompous one out of fear of public embarrassment and ridicule.
Until they take back their party from the extremists, they deserve to remain outsiders in the political process in America.
– Dr. Edwin E. Vineyard, AKA The Militant Moderate, lives in Enid, OK and is a regular contributor to The Oklahoma Observer
