An election year parable/analogy: Democrats, Republicans, Third Parties

[Selwynn]

We're drowning in a stormy sea amidst a shipwreck.

The shipwreck we're drowning in is the policy, ideology and action of this neoconservative administration. The waves are high, the winds and rains torrential, we can't stay afloat.

We look to the west and on the distant horizon, we see what looks like paradise. That land represents every good and right thing progressives believe in - equality, fairly shared wealth, guaranteed human rights and liberties, peace and non-violence, health care as a right, quality education as a right, an end to poverty, and so on.

We look to the east and on that distant horizon, we the outline of the land our ship was sailing to, and from which we desperately want to flee. That land of dark skies and misery represents tyranny, exploitation, corruption, greed and the domination of select elite over the masses.

Both shores, one good and one not, are out of our reach - for we're drowning in the middle of the ocean.

But then we hear voices, shouting out, and through the pouring rain and the blinding winds and the crushing waves we see flares. We being to make out the shapes of a rag-tag fleet, rafts and small boats - certainly not the greatest and most awesome naval sight imaginable, but signs of hope just the same.

Above the storm we hear a voice of a leader that says, "come to safety and help us as we fight the storm - we're headed to those shores of freedom, we've been looking for you, hope is on the way." Those sailors with their embarrassingly tiny boats, and make shift sails and crews from all walks of life lead by that captain are the democratic party and John Kerry.

Now, right at this point, we who are drowning in the stormy seas have a choice. We can think to ourselves, "well, these people say they are sailing for the land of freedom, progressive ideals and a better tomorrow, but what if we come aboard and discover that they've lied, and they start sailing back to the land of darkness?" The answer to that question is so simple: we're going to drown right here and right now - so isn't it worth taking a chance on the people with the boats?

We might also think, "you know we've heard rumor of a giant ship that is already harbored in the land of freedom, and maybe if we say no to this offer for aid we might be rescued by this fabled ship." That ship is Ralph Nader, and ever other detached "progressive" ideologue who ignores the fact that when you're drowning in an ocean, you don't hold out for a rumored ship no one has ever actually seen to come by and take you to safety, when you have a small rag-tag group of people in boats and rafts which may not be perfect and may not be pretty, but are promising to take you out of the seas and on their slow and difficult journey toward better brighter shores....

As a person who is drowning in the sinking shipwreck of a neoconservative vessel sailing toward the dark shorts of tyranny, violence and oppression, I will choose to be saved from drowning by a raggedy group of men and woman in make shift boats who promise me they are sailing toward better lands. It may be possible that I am pulled out of the ocean only to find out that they were not fully truthful with me about how direct their route to these lands was going to be, but at least I'll be alive, and able to express my voice to them and keep them focused on heading always in the right direction. I will not wait around for a legendary ship of progressive pseudo-idealism that criticizes every other ship on the ocean, swears its ship is bigger, better, faster, and has already docked in the "promised land" - but which no one has ever actually seen anywhere on the ocean, not one time - ever. I won't wait on that fantasy while I'm drowning.

I'll cast my lot in with this mismatch of people in their humble little boats - and I'll endure the constant arguments between them about weather a southern course to catch a certain current is the best hope for reaching land, and those who want to navigate by the stars, and those who feel that heading more northwestward will get us there faster. In the end, these people will slowly - sometimes painfully - work out their direction and creep little by little toward a better place, a new world. And that's where I want to be.