Zap that puppy again

I got sick of taking the shocks and finally got the hell outta the cage.

I read an interesting article a couple of weeks ago that really resonated with me.  It was written by Chris Hernandez, an author who is a police officer and an Army Reservist.  The focus of his article was the occurrence of learned helplessness that often results from continuous exposure to the soul-robbing, idiotic bureaucracy in the military.  He ties this learned helplessness response that has been felt at one point or another by anybody who has ever served in the military to an animal behavior experiment.

Years ago, some horribly cruel researchers conducted an experiment. According to the version I heard during my brief college career, they stuck a dog in a cage, left the door open, and ran an electric current through the floor. The dog yelped and ran from the cage. Then they put the dog back in the cage, locked the door and repeatedly shocked the floor again. The dog went nuts trying to get out, until it finally realized there was no escape. Then the dog just lay there, stoically accepting the pain.

At that point, when the dog was defeated, the researchers opened the cage door and shocked the floor again. The dog felt the shock, looked at the open door, and said, “Screw it. There’s no point fighting. I may as well just lay here and take it.”

This got me thinking about the state of politics in our country and my role in the battle between creeping socialism and the constitutional republic of our nation's founding.  The description of the dog shocking experiment immediately brought to mind comparisons to the GOP.  Most elected Republicans have been repeatedly savaged by the media throughout their public lives.  No matter what they say or how they vote, the mainstream news media will invariably portray them negatively.  They are that poor dog in the cage, getting shock after shock, no matter what they do.  I can easily imagine what this must do to your average politician.  Politicians are public creatures.  Their fortunes depend on appealing to voters.  When constantly faced with negative publicity I would imagine that the impulse to just give up would be strong.  It takes a lot of character to take this routine abuse and still continue to fight for your principles.  Unfortunately, many GOP politicians do not possess such a strong character.  The likes of Ted Cruz, Sarah Palin and Rand Paul are few and far between.  Too many would rather just stay put in the cage, hoping that if they don't openly promote conservative views the news media will stay away from the shock button.

The sad thing is that, even when events play out in our favor, the GOP is so conditioned to appeasement, surrender and failure it is unable to effectively respond.  The massive failure of Obamacare and the damage it is doing is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for conservatives to make the definitive argument against the spread of socialism and statism.  Millions of Americans are feeling the pain and it can be easily attributed to Obama and his policies.  This opportunity won't last and it must be exploited for Americans to understand the cause.  They won't reach the correct conclusions with the media providing cover.  Elected conservatives must hammer home the lessons and come out forcefully on the right side of this disaster.  However, as this momentous event plays out, what are the Republicans doing?  Hanging back, letting talk radio and bloggers do the heavy lifting while they cower in the corner of their little cage hoping that things will work out in their favor.

At times I also feel like that dog in the cage.  How many times have I put my faith in 'conservative' politicians to fight for the principles that they say they represent?  How many times have those same 'conservative' politicians turned right around and hit that button?  They do what they need to do to get re-elected and I'm left doing the 60Hz shuffle in the cage.  It has happened so frequently that I have found myself like the dog; devoid of hope, unable to do anything but endure yet another shock.  After the GOP's latest capitulation on the government shutdown/defunding of Obamacare, I just tuned out for a while.  Like that poor dog, I had lost the will to fight.  Fortunately, I am a slow learner, stubborn and a glutton for punishment.  After taking a month off from obsessing about politics I seem to have forgotten how much that shock hurts.  The stakes are too high to give up on this fight.  I don't care how many shocks I get, I am going to keep fighting.  I'm getting out of this damn cage and I'm going to bite those MFers in the ass.

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