By Peter Galuszka
As minutes tick by, the behavior of Republicans in Congress, especially Virginia’s ultra-rogue junior elephant, Eric Cantor, becomes increasingly fascinating.
They have become, suggests David P. Barash, psychology professor at the University of Washington, elephants in “must,” meaning that the usual rules of rationality and brinksmanship have become moot. Mind you, the elephant has long been extremely accurate symbol of the GOP (I don’t go for the “clan” nonsense Risse dishes out any more than I respect his “vocabulary,” hah!)
It does seem that elephants fit the bill. They are big, ungainly and overfed. They like tax breaks, especially for the fatter elephants. And, from time to time, they get a little ditzy and when they do, brother, watch out!
This is what has happened. After years of blowing out the federal budget under their Chief Elephant George W. Bush, the herd went nutzy in January 2009 when Barack Obama was inaugurated. We were entering a terrible recession and suddenly, overnight, the elephants got the religion of fiscal discipline. It all became Obama’s fault, the elephants agreed.
So now comes the debt ceiling. The Elephants want to link that to all kinds of spending cuts. They do not care that by doing so they may well crash our anemic economy back into recession. They forget that the late King of Elephants, Ronald Reagan, raised the debt ceiling 18 times.
Oh no. They want to stampede. Rationality doesn’t apply. And here’s what psychologist Barash reports will happen. The elephants have reached a state of “must.” It isn’t a pretty picture:
“It’s a tactic that works surprisingly well, because male elephants can be in fact temporarily “crazy.” One of the most terrifying sights in the animal world is an elephant in a state of must: Huge bulls, oozing a weird, foul-smelling greenish glop from glands near their eyes, behave with violent abandon, taking risks, and defying the basic rules of pachyderm propriety(and also giving rise to the term “rogue elephant”). Facing an elephant in must, other elephants –not to mention people — are well advised to get out of the way. ”
So you have it from the animal world.
