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Well, it DOESN"T seem to be working

This is one of my favorite phrases from 'Out of the Silent Planet' by C.S.Lewis. On Mars (don't ask, just accept it) two earth scientists have kidnapped another man, adn all three are now in front of a respectful group of Martian creatures who are in turn in front of the ruling spirit of MArs. One fo the scientists thinks the voice they hear is a trick, and believes he has spotted the perpetrator. He shouts and waves things in front of this Martian, while all the rest laugh. Finally his partner says 'for God's sake, Weston, can't you see it's not working?' Weston replies 'well, it DOESN'T seem to be working'.

This exchange applies to so many situations in life. At what point are we persistent in the face of resistance, and when does it become stubbornness and follishness?

The deomcrats in congress and the senate face this question now. Predictably for human affairs, there are those shouting to 'stay the course'. There are also those saying 'abandon the health care plan'. I don't hear or read about many advising backing off and coming up with a new plan.

As long as the issue is phrased in dichotomous terms, I think the democrats are going to get crushed in November. A dichotomous construct gives them the choice of walking away and looking like quitters who can not govern, or persisting in passing a remarkably unpopular bill.

I beleive more people would respond to an honest assessment of the situation- 'this doesn't seem to be working', and a renewed attempt with a different bill, free of buy-offs for individual senators, big pharma, union sweet deals and others. Spending hundreds of billions in this way to insure 10%  of the population is not the way to win the votes of the other 90%.

Ted

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