DANCE OF THE DONKEYS

There are two piles of hay close by and each Donkey heads for one but the rope is not long enough for each to reach its chosen pile. They pull and tug at each other, he-haw up a storm but to no avail.

Then having spent themselves, the muscle between their long ears kicks in and they both dance over to one pile of hay, eat that and then both go to the other pile of hay. Voila! There is no end to what can be accomplished when strong, determined minds work together.

Our Donkeys have several piles of metaphorical hay that they want to get to and are determined to drag the other Donkeys to it. There are the Greens, environmentalists extraordinaire; the Liberals who refuse to be ashamed of their name, grass-rooters who never met a union they did not love.

Of course the Progressives, who claim all of the Democratic virtues relating to the poor; the Democratic leadership that shies away from the down and dirty word, Liberal, and then there are various other splinter groups.

The Elephants have managed successfully to play on the conceit of the Donkeys by getting most of them to fear and hate being called a Liberal. They have acquired Money, God and the Flag thereby forcing the Donkeys to plaintively defend what they do not own or be deemed unpatriotic.

Donkeys are forever being played by the Elephants, mostly because they are emotionally connected and engaged in humanity. Donkeys do right for its own sake without bringing in higher powers to justify what is second nature to them.

So it's easy for the Elephants to scare the Donkey leadership into pulling one way while the rest of the Donkeys pull in several other directions. Humanity to the Elephant is just a mark in the shell game of politics; something to give lip service too. When there is a presidential election, most Donkeys reluctantly follow whoever has been chosen by the majority, trying to convince themselves that they are not abandoning their principals with their vote.

In 2004, an outside the beltway Wildcard was the runaway choice of the Liberal Grass rooters and Progressives but the Leadership, cowed by the Elephants, were convinced that appearance of a candidate was more important that what he espoused.

The Wildcard was kicked and dumped in exchange for two Senators who raised the comfort level of the Congressional Donkeys and their money machines, because in their words, "he was not electable". In this instance most of the kicking was done by the Donkeys while the Elephants sat on the sidelines gleefully watching.

Playing on the feelings of the rank and file, who would settle for anything that wasn't the dumbest living Elephant, most Donkeys held their noses and eschewed their own favorite piles of hay at the polls. Those who could not, stayed away, horrorstruck by the way the Senator candidate was making a balls-up of campaign rhetoric.

But most Donkeys were convinced by the elders in DC that voting for this presentable ticket would mean a Donkey in the White House which would help all of their causes. They were told that if they voted for the Wild Card they would lose but votes for the Senators would assure them a victory in 2004. They believed, they followed and they lost. Those who paid the piper called the tune. Who will be the next Lady or Lord of the Dance for the Donkeys?

gapperserve@peoplepc.com

2005-41

Copyright 2005 Renee T. Louise and Ruth M. Sprague, Ph.D. These articles may be republished for noncommercial use only, provided that they are copied intact, and that this copyright notice is attached. Address all queries to: gapperserve@peoplepc.com.

G e n d e r G a p p e r s   ^{T M}