Comic Strip of the Day

CSotD: Putting the cap back on the toothpaste

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Mike Peterson Published: January 13, 2011 1 minute 3 comments

Clay Jones drew this before the President's speech last night, in which he more or less made the same point. I liked what Obama had to say, that he called down those who were pointing fingers, but that he didn't let the haters off the hook, either.

And I sat there feeling like I was kind of getting a bit of a presidential slap-down myself, and thinking, "Okay, I can take it. But is anybody actually listening? Is anybody going to cite the totality of his remarks? Or will they just grab the sound bites they need to prove the point they planned to make before he stood up?"

These doubts do not prove that I am an astute political analyst. They simply prove that I'm more than 24 years old. And that kind of world-weary cynicism is part of the problem.

Our situation as a nation is like a failing marriage, and assigning blame for Tucson is the argument over leaving the cap off the toothpaste. That may be what we are quarreling over, but it's not the real issue. Putting the cap back on the toothpaste would not solve our problems. But leaving the cap off the toothpaste sure as hell doesn't make things better, especially when you're just doing it to show you don't have to put the damn thing back on.

"You always" and "You never" are also not constructive phrases, if you want to save the marriage. And there is a point where you have no right moves left. You're wrong if you stay and return accusation-for-accusation, because you're being confrontational and turning everything into a fight, but you're also wrong if you walk away to prevent another fight, because you're avoiding the issue and refusing to deal with things.

And it's sad, because, really, at heart, we want to be together. We want this thing to work.

And we both know that we could make it work, we could stay together, we could be happy, if only we could find some wise, perceptive marriage counselor who would sit us both down, listen patiently to both sides, and then say, "You're a hundred percent right. That asshole has to change completely and do things your way."

Is that too much to ask, to save our marriage, to save our nation?