The Democrats: All Tied Up In Their Own Gordian Knot

There's a lot of things that could be said, politically, about the Democrats and their head long plunge into getting their partisan health care reform legislation passed. However, I would prefer to simply express it as saying that they have created a Gordian Knot of their own doing.

In legend, the Phrygian King, Gordius, allowed himself to be tied in a circular knot that, presumably, could only be untied by the person qualified to be the king of all Asia. However, as the legend continues, Alexander the Great solved the complexity of the knot by simply cutting it in half with his sword. Thus, the moral of the legend is that there can be a quick solution to even the most difficult of problems.

The Gordian Knot that the Democrats now find themselves in is the fact that they are damned if they do pass health care reform and they are damned if they don't. They are damned if they do because the bulk of Americans don't want the plan as it is written. As a result, the political gurus are predicting heavy losses for them in the Fall elections. They are damned if they don't because their own political base would be turned off and they could suffer even bigger loses due to assumed voter apathy on the left; resulting in a poor turnout by their supporters in November. This, then, could result in an "anti-Democrat" turnout with little or no "pro-Democrat" votes to offset it. It is for this reason that the Democrats think their losses could be even greater.

So, they have painted themselves into a corner.

The simple solution that could break the knot would be to start over and create a bipartisan bill that would be acceptable to the majority of people in this country. Barack Obama could figuratively act as Alexander the Great in this situation by simply giving his blessing to a new beginning for health care reform. However, he lacks the wisdom of Alexander the Great because he is an ideologue who is hell bent on pushing this highly charged legislation through Congress. As a consequence, he is actually tightening the "Knot" -- much like a hangman's noose around the neck of each and every Democrat.

What we are actually witnessing is mass stupidity and mass suicide by one political party -- something that has, to my knowledge, never been seen in American politics. It is being completely driven by ideology and not common sense. And, as history has proven, over and over again, that when leaders and rulers, politicians, and governments ignore the will of the people, they are doomed to fail.