I’ve never made any secret of the fact that I enjoy crap television; this includes reality TV. One of the mainstays on the Masson TV lineup is Survivor. For those of you who don’t watch, one of the main show dynamic involves initially splitting the contestants into two tribes. For a period of time, the tribes are pitted against each other; the losing tribe forced to send someone home. Eventually, most seasons, the two tribes will be merged together. Then, each week, the new single tribe has to vote someone out.
After the merge, typically what happens, is the members of the old tribe with the most remaining members band together and vote off members of the old tribe with fewer numbers. But, inevitably, when the small tribe is no longer a threat, a faction of the remaining big tribe poaches members of the small tribe to gain an advantage over another faction from the big tribe. The closer the original tribes are in numbers, however, the more tightly they stick together.
I was reminded of this dynamic when reading Jim Shella’s note about how the Republicans in the Indiana Senate are treating the Democrats nicely. There are only 13 Democrats in that chamber compared to 37 Republicans. The Democrats are not even close to being a threat in terms of power and influence. That suggests we might expect to see Republican factions battling each other in that chamber. I wonder if any of those factions will seek to make use of the available Democrats.
Gosh, Doug, TMI. Crap TV? Say it ain’t so!
I saw something analogous in Ireland in 1968, a year or two before The Troubles or the past 40 years began.
First stop: Belfast (Northern Ireland). I was with a Protestant group (Wheaton College Men’s Glee Club). There was a large Catholic minority in the North. The anti-catholic bigotry was fierce and open. As we toured along the beautiful coast, one village entrance had a sign proclaiming “No Popery Here!” Our hosts watched us for signs of thought crimes. One inveighed against Billy Graham (a Wheaton Alum) for not warning people away from Catholicism. Ian Paisley was their Main Man.
On to Dublin (Republic of/Southern Ireland). Negligible Protestant minority. Peace and bonhomie prevailed.
{In my rearview mirror: Protestants tend to define themselves by anti-catholicism of various titrations. Rome doesn’t define itself as anti-Protestant. Their was certainly some suppression of Protestant expression in the Latin Countries I saw, like Spain and Portugal. But under Salazar, there was suppression of just about everything in Portugal.)
Doug, your instincts are good, and not just in the Sentate.
The only Republican in our local delegation (which is the second largest in the state) is Ed Soliday. After the election, as the 10 other Democrats are now in the minority, and even more useless than they were before, Soliday says, “I’d like the Northwest Indiana Delegation to have the unity and effectiveness that they had in decades past”.
Translation: NWI Democrats, do what Ed Soliday tells you to do, and he will take care of you.
Ed Soliday plus 10 Democrats, including two Senators, can throw a lot of weight around.
I personally can’t stand Soliday, he’s a secret Democrat. But he is the only competent person in our local delegation (he’s a former American Airlines executive and pilot) and the Democrats know it. They were following his lead even before they were relegated to the minority.