Democrats: scorpions, or frogs?

Our interest in myths and folklore has returned and been growing over the past few years. Aesop has a tale which we believe is highly relevant to the conundrums we face these days and how we might want to act in light of them. Here's Aesop's fable of:

The Scorpion and the Frog

  A scorpion and a frog meet on the bank of a stream and the 
scorpion asks the frog to carry him across on its back. The 
frog asks, "How do I know you won't sting me?" The scorpion 
says, "Because if I do, I will die too."

  The frog is satisfied, and they set out, but in midstream,
the scorpion stings the frog. The frog feels the onset of 
paralysis and starts to sink, knowing they both will drown,
but has just enough time to gasp "Why?" 

  Replies the scorpion: "Its my nature..."

There are several ways to respond to the nature of a scorpion, but first one needs to face the reality of such an arachnid becoming president. It seems to us that too many Democrats have been behaving like frogs for entirely too long. Although not a perfect fit, the phrases "aiding and abetting" and "unindicted co-conspirator" come to mind.

frog, contemplating carrying passengers for hire

Photo by J. Harrington

We don't think Aesop created a fable about what happens when two scorpions try to negotiate a peace agreement. We suspect we'll get to see how that turns out over the next several months or years. However, that will still leave us with a major concern. Can we expect to neutralize a scorpion by electing a majority of frogs to congress? Is there a Plan B?

Letter to Someone Living Fifty Years from Now

Matthew Olzmann

Most likely, you think we hated the elephant,
the golden toad, the thylacine and all variations
of whale harpooned or hacked into extinction.
It must seem like we sought to leave you nothing
but benzene, mercury, the stomachs
of seagulls rippled with jet fuel and plastic.
You probably doubt that we were capable of joy,
but I assure you we were.
We still had the night sky back then,
and like our ancestors, we admired
its illuminated doodles
of scorpion outlines and upside-down ladles.
Absolutely, there were some forests left!
Absolutely, we still had some lakes!
I’m saying, it wasn’t all lead paint and sulfur dioxide.
There were bees back then, and they pollinated
a euphoria of flowers so we might
contemplate the great mysteries and finally ask,
“Hey guys, what’s transcendence?”
And then all the bees were dead.

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