Demands vs Agreement: The GOP’s Error in Believing the World Must Agree With Them

I think folks sometimes forget the difference between agreements and demands. In recent weeks we have seen politicians indulging in demands. It’s full out “my way or the highway.” Take that guy who lives in Florida but is the senator for Alabama. What’s his name? The washed out football coach. Toomy Tumbleville, yeah something like that. This poor guy really wants to make his mom proud. The problem is there’s nothing to crow about. Toomy has “religious” reasons for not promoting US military personnel. Since there are some 300+ military officers whose lives he has made more difficult, Toomy is making a demand. There is no space for agreement in his stance.

Toomy Tumbleville represents the epitome of a man making demands that he calls agreement. He started talking about things way above his pay grade and now he has to act like he knows something he clearly does not know. I suspect he experienced some of those same problems as a coach and that didn’t end well either.

Toomy is not alone in mistaking demands for agreements. A few days ago, we witnessed a young inexperienced wannabe frat boy/politician torpedo the entire Congress of the United States. He claimed to be fulfilling an agreement with his constituents. But the fly in his ointment is that the solution to the budget crisis he claims to be drawing attention to is easily solved. Undo the tax breaks to corporations and individuals who make more money than they can spend. That solves the budget deficit in just a few years. But that upstart wannabe is not protected by people who are crazy about what would happen to their economic piece of the pie should he succeed in shutting down the government. You know, those folks don’t want to pay their fair share of the tax burden required to maintain the behemoth machinations of holding a peaceful line among the world’s megalomaniacs vying for world domination.

But what did this upstart do? He made a demand that the world conform to his idea of what the world should be. The world is in the process of passing on his offer, it appears, but thanks him for his thoughts and prayers. The world does not respond well to demands you see. The world does seem to be much more malleable to those who can agree. The problem for the likes of Toomy and the upstart, is they think the world must agree with them or they will take their marbles and go home. Which, upon contemplation, is not that bad of an idea.

That upstart frat boy/politician did not consider the consequences of his demand. He thought, it would appear, that because of how pretty he is, that everyone would naturally give him a standing ovation. He was disappointed in that expectation. What he accomplished was rather like what the people dedicated to building the tower of babel experienced. No one understood what he was saying nor what he was doing. Because he was only offering his demands.

To have offered an agreement in place of his demand would have required that young man to have been happy with his station in life, because it is the work of his life. To have offered an agreement in place of his demand, he would have considered the power that harmony with the institution and the gravity of his post exerts on the course of society. Humanity will always sing of progress. To have offered an agreement in place of his demand he would have communicated information in the realization of his job as Congressman. He would have had to stay within the limits of what that job requires, which is a certain loyalty to the party. He would have had to have simply used common sense to see that his move would not bring flowers and accolades. He would have had to be honest with himself so he could understand his common humanity with his country. He would have to have been at least somewhat aware that blowing up the Speaker of the House position would have dire consequences. I don’t think our boy is capable of any of these mature considerations.

It is obvious, after all, that our upstart guy has been misled in his young life, that doing anything he pleased was how the world worked. He was apparently taught that he was so far above the grime of worldly affairs that he would never be personally affected by the affairs that regular folk had the misfortune to be born to. It’s no wonder then that he could have mistaken name recognition as agreement of his position above the fray.

Imagine his shock and dismay to realize the meaning of the word ostracize. In the immediate aftermath of his mission impossible foray into big boy pants, normally staid congressmen were to the point of fisticuffs. You know, that is not a good look. Oooh, the weight of the inescapable knowledge that something so momentous is entirely your fault and you could have just kept your mouth shut. You know, just stayed in the agreement which was in place. Now everyone in Congress has to reload whatever they had in motion. You see, our upstart frat boy/politician has ceased to be cute and has become a royal pain in the Congressional backside. Not to mention a National Waste of Time and Energy.

Now, as for that college football coach who washed out of the NFL, but got elected to the Senate by pure name recognition, Toomy Toumbleville, he may have a lot to do with the nightmare that took place in Israel. You see, Coachy is in the process of whipping his Senatorial players into shape. And in his misguided attempt to fulfill the expectations of the good old boys he knew back in his college days, he has prevented the promotion of a ton of military bosses including the General who should be in charge of the Middle East operation for the United States.

Yeah, yeah, I get that is a heavy statement. What if that is true? It’s true that our spy folks knew something was up. They even worried about all the muscle the bad guys had. I don’t have any idea if the lack of promotion touted by Toomy had anything to do with that horrific event, but I do know that it did not help. There was really no one in the office to make a decision. And that belongs to Toomy Tumbleville.

I don’t suppose that college football coaches or upstart frat boy/politicians are required to be aware of Greek fables. But as long ago as 600 B.C., Aesop was telling tales about how you could not break a bundle of sticks, but one stick could be broken easily. He even had a story about four bulls who kept a lion at bay until the day they quarreled and each went their separate ways. Then the lion had an all he could eat smorgasbord. The moral of that old story is that united we stand, but divided we fall.

Not recognizing this basic reality comes about because of people within any group demanding that they be given their way, whatever in the hell that means. But that very demand will inevitably result in chaos when that demand ends the agreement the agreement holders are pursuing. Congratulations Frat Boy and Coachy Toomy. Gooood jooob.

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