Another title for this column could be “Bait and Switch.” We have all experienced such a situation in life. Maybe it was with the most common scenario of a personal relationship of either romantic or platonic nature. Purchases of a car or home that end up being lemons also come to mind. I have even accepted employment with promises made only to have them withdrawn or unfulfilled and hard feelings result. Time usually helps evaporate the bitterness and betrayal but it can leave behind residual resentment and distrust that unfairly punishes the future.
The idea for this opine came to me while waiting for the Ambien to kick in by supinely browsing YouTube videos of the famous comedy duo Abbott and Costello. “Two Tens for a Five” is probably their second most humorous skit next to “Who’s on First.” Bud and Lou go back and forth exchanging green backs of the $5 and $10 denomination with the verbal trickery they are known to have perfected. I laughed out loud while at the same time thinking to myself, “Boy, I can relate many situations in life to that!”
It is hard to swallow the feeling when others get the best of us or “win” via the tactic I describe. It feels like the bad guy always wins or goes unpunished. I then sit and wait for karma to even the score. Thoughts of revenge can enter my mind, but I then hear my long time loyal friend Jay’s voice tell me, “The best revenge is to live a good life.”
I have to remind myself that if I maintain my integrity and self-respect through the course of such a deception, then I win, not them. Sophocles summed the bait and switch reality with philosophical genius by writing, “Rather fail with honor than succeed by fraud.”
I am tempted to apply this human phenomenon to current political events in the state of Idaho. My bias will show itself, I admit that fact. My opinion and proxy votes at the annual summer meetings of the Idaho GOP held in Challis last weekend were to no avail. Pretty much every rule or resolution on which I voted no passed anyway. The consequences will take some time to play out. I am privately, and now publicly, hoping that the bait and switch effect will not be as prominent as I fear.
I channel Ronald Reagan in repeating, “Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty.” We should learn from his example of working across the aisle with Democrat Tip O’Neill, former Speaker of the House of Representatives. Who would have thought, at that time, that two opponents could find some common ground but they surprised us all.
Promises of holding elected officials accountable to the GOP platform won’t turn into the power grab some fear… is my wish. Closing perceived loopholes in party registration won’t turn into the loss of voting freedom and participation of all Idahoans in the political process…is my wish.
I will fairly and patiently wait for further light and knowledge on these rules and their implementation before final judgment. I will try my best to be a good Republican and not withdraw in discouragement from political activism into the sea of apathy that is overcrowded and possibly responsible for the state of our society.
The pendulum of politics and trends has swung wildly to the right here in our beloved Idaho. Newton’s law of momentum has not completed its course yet but it will someday find its peak and probably start moving in the opposite direction to find a happy medium for a mild moderate like me. I have heard demographic analysis of the voters described as a bell curve with approximately 60 percent in the fat part of the curve. That is where I reside. To the far left and far right live the other 40 percent split evenly. If you judge public sentiment by decibel level, you would think the majority is in those narrow tails of the curve but I honestly don't think that to be true. I hope I don’t always feel like I just got a five for two tens.
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