uTopianTurtleTop

MOEBIUS STRIP

Shortly after the election, a lot us -- me included -- were storming around sick and appalled with sardonic defeatist phrases like this on our lips: "Fine, Red Staters, it's your deficit now, it's your war now."

Yesterday near the end of a long meeting at work I pulled apart my cardboard coffee cup heat-guard and twisted it to make a Moebius strip. And this is corny, but it struck me as a possible metaphor for our political predicament.

The Blues and the Reds have been in a mean-mouthed feedback loop. A simple twist of the loop and we're all on the same side. And this is true. The majority of the Red Staters don't want to bankrupt the country. The majority of them don't want to attack countries that pose no threat to us. As the Blue leaders have been saying for years, we win on the issues, because the majority agrees with us.

It's time to give the feedback loop a twist. The sad truth is, the primary responsibility for the deficit and America's plummeting international reputation DOES belong to the Red Staters. We need to find ways to persuade them to lean on their elected officials to represent their interests and beliefs. Kansas farmers don't want a bankrupt government any more than I do.

How we do that, I'm not sure. But let's see if we can make this "we win on the issues" lament work for us. Let's test it. Let's see if it's true.