I had told myself that I wasn’t going to post anymore post-presidential election mourning pieces, but I came across this Molly Ivins essay, “Don’t Mourn, Organize,” and I said to myself, okay, one more.
Here’s the passage from the beginning I think is most relevant:
Some people think you cannot break a dog that has got in the habit of killin’ chickens, but my friend John Henry always claimed you could. He said the way to do it is to take one of the chickens the dog has killed and wire the thing around the dog’s neck, good and strong. And leave it there until that dead chicken stinks so bad that no other dog or person will even go near that poor beast. Thing’ll smell so bad the dog won’t be able to stand himself. You leave it on there until the last little bit of flesh rots and falls off, and that dog won’t kill chickens again.
The Bush administration is going to be wired around the neck of the American people for four more years, long enough for the stench to sicken everybody. It should cure the country of electing Republicans.
This might be wishful thinking, but it’s a good wish, and I think Ivins’ point is merely wishing doesn’t make it so. We have to keep working at it, and we have to keep reminding people who tied that dead chicken around our neck.