An Electoral Analogy From Louis C.K.

(Photo of Louis C.K. was found at tvguide.com.)

In a recent interview at Vulture.com, comedian Louis C.K. gave an excellent (and humorous) analogy of the 2016 presidential election. I offer it here for your amusement:

The American government is a very volatile, dangerous mechanism, and Hillary has the most experience with it. It’s like if you were on a plane and you wanted to choose a pilot. 

You have one person, Hillary, who says, “Here’s my license. Here’s all the thousands of flights that I’ve flown. Here’s planes I’ve flown in really difficult situations. I’ve had some good flights and some bad flights, but I’ve been flying for a very long time, and I know exactly how this plane works.” 

Then you’ve got Bernie, who says, “Everyone should get a ride right to their house with this plane.” “Well, how are you going to do that?” “I just think we should. It’s only fair that everyone gets to use the plane equally.” 

And then Trump says, “I’m going to fly so well. You’re not going to believe how good I’m going to fly this plane, and by the way, Hillary never flew a plane in her life.” “She did, and we have pictures.” “No, she never did it.” It’s insane.

Analogy Or Propaganda ?

There is an excellent blog that I read daily called What Would Jack Do?. The writer is smart, funny and on target 99% of the time. But he did a post this week that I found very disappointing. In the post titled "Really...What would you do?", he proposes a simple analogy that he believes represents the Israeli/Gaza situation. Here, in his own words, is the analogy:

"Consider this scenario: your neighbors, who have made it clear that they cannot stand you, regularly throws rocks at your house. Sometimes the rocks miss, because your neighbors aren't exactly the reincarnation of Peyton Manning. Often the rocks do hit their target- breaking windows, injuring family members, and just generally wreaking havoc and destroying your household's peace of mind. OK, so how long do you think it would be before you decided that you have no choice but to take action against your neighbor- to protect your property, as well as the safety and well-being of your family? I submit that you wouldn't tolerate this situation for long without responding, because you're going to protect you and yours."

Of course, in this analogy, you are Israel and your neighbor is Gaza (run by Hamas). You obviously have the right to protect yourself from those evil Hamas "rock throwers". The problem with this analogy is that the situation between Israel and Gaza is just not that simple. I would propose a different analogy:

You are upset because some members of the family next door don't like you and have been guilty of throwing rocks at your house. So you build a wall around the house next door and place armed guards at that wall. Then you try to starve the neighbors into submission by refusing to let adequate food and medicine reach their house, while refusing to talk to them because they are "rock throwers".

They rebel by throwing more rocks. So you then take a machine gun and some grenades next door and proceed to kill anyone you find, whether they are guilty of throwing rocks or not. When your other neighbors try to tell you you are overreacting, you insist you are just protecting your house from the rock throwers.

If you're going to make an analogy, then you must make sure it accurately portrays the situation. If it doesn't, then it is just propaganda.

The fact is that Israel does have a right to exist, and they do have the right to protect themselves -- but not in any way at any cost. Gaza also has a right to exist, a right to receive food and medical supplies and a right to choose their own leaders (no matter what anyone else thinks of those leaders).

A cease-fire worked in the past, but the Israelis and Americans refused to negotiate unless Hamas surrendered first. That's ridiculous. Both sides need to agree to another cease-fire, but this time there must be some real negotiations -- without any pre-conditions from either side.

Most people know that a "two-state" solution is the answer, but it will never be achieved by fighting and war. Negotiating is the only way. America could help this happen, but only if we can be fair to both sides. If we continue the Bush policy of supporting anything Israel wants to do, then it would be better for us to get out of the way and let someone else do it.

The current attack by Israel (and supported by the U.S.) will accomplish nothing but to kill innocent civilians and create more terrorists.