Saturday, August 6, 2011

Wisconsin's leaky sink


Here is an analogy that might make things clearer.

I have a sink that has sprung a leak, it is leaking water all over, gallons upon gallons and nothing stops it. I call a plumber to fix the leak, but my kids don't like having someone else come into the house to do the work, some get upset. Of my 33 kids, 14 of them decide they are going to prevent the other 19 from getting the leak fixed by running away with the plumbers tools, nothing can get done without those tools. They stay away for weeks, and threaten to never return.
Finally my 19 kids decide they will work around the impasse caused by the 14 runaways and give the plumber a tool that he can work with and fix the leak; not quite the same tool, and not as effective, but it will help.
When the 14 runaways hear about the fix they return, and now they are incensed that somehow the plumber was given the tools needed to plug the leak and stop the unnecessary wasting of water. Now they have gotten a bunch of their friends to threaten violence and intimidate the 19 kids who stayed home and tried to find a solution for the leak. They have also started making trouble for them in their own homes, so their families would see how "mean" they were, for stopping the leak, and get rid of them.
Even some members of the families of the 14 runaways decided that maybe it wasn't for the good of all to have them try to throw a monkey wrench into the leak problem by running away with the plumbers tools. A lot of the family members decided to give the plumber some extra tools to help keep the leak plugged and not allow the 14 runaways and their friends to cause the repair to fail. Now the rift between my 33 kids and the plumber has gotten out of hand, not only are my 14 kids fighting against the 19, but they are also threatening the plumber with all kinds of sanctions. Even so far as trying to get some other states plumbers money to prevent the plumber from doing anymore work on the leak.
And why all the commotion? Because they wanted the sink to keep leaking, they liked the leak, because they could get all the water they wanted from the leak; and now that the leak is temporarily fixed they have to use the faucet to get their water. They don't like using the faucet. Using the faucet means they have to do some work, and they have to turn it off when they are finished getting their drink. They would much rather have the water running constantly and aplenty so they don't have to be responsible.

Cast of characters:
14 Runaway kids: Wisconsin's Democratic Senators
19 Stay at home kids: Wisconsin's Republican Senators
Runaways friends: Unions, protesters, Democratic Assembly, Mainstream Media,
The plumber: Scott Walker
The Leak: the Budget of Wisconsin
The Narrator: The people of Wisconsin

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