The Obstructionist Fable
Hearing the Democrats constantly whine about obstructionist Republicans blocking Obamacare, I was reminded of one of the lesser-known of Aesop’s tales…
One day some wealthy men were walking together when they came across a hungry man. They formed a committee of ten to determine how best to address the situation. Six of the men declared, “This hungry man has no food. Tomorrow we should make him a sandwich–a crap sandwich.” Alarmed, the other four protested, “Crap will do the poor man no good. We should make the sandwich of roast beef instead. After all, you wouldn’t eat a crap sandwich would you?”
Replied the six, “But we don’t have to eat a crap sandwich. We have roast beef. He, however, has no roast beef and will be content with crap.”
When the four refused to feed the man a crap sandwich, the six huddled together. They did not want to be held solely responsible for feeding the man a crap sandwich and sought the assent of the other four. After some consideration, they returned to the four and said, “We have just the thing. Rather than a mere sandwich we will make him a foot-long crap hoagie.”
Concerned that the six would prevail and provide nothing of value to the hungry man, the four proposed at least adding lettuce, tomatoes, and mayo to make the crap hoagie more nutritious and palatable. The six agreed but, after hearing the poor man declare he did not want a crap sandwich, one of the six decided it would, after all, be better to make the hoagie of roast beef rather than crap.
When the time came to feed the man, the four–now five–refused to make the sandwich at all. The six–now five–cried, “Why will you not feed this poor man? We allowed you to add lettuce, tomatoes, and mayo.”
“Because,” replied the four–now five–, “a crap sandwich, dressed however nicely, is still a crap sandwich. The man does not want one and we will have no part in it. Why, when you were six, did you not feed the man crap yourselves?”