Some folks think it's just an expression, but, having had horses of my own, I can tell you that just because you lead a horse to water doesn't mean it's going to drink.
Even on a hot trail, in the middle of July, I've prodded Jackson, a sweaty appendix quarter horse, to the middle of a babbling mountain stream; he refused to even lower his head to quench his thirst. Understanding that he really needed the water, I tried everything to encourage him to lap it up. (I even asked him, when no one else was listening, why he refused to take advantage of the resource. But, being no Mr. Ed, his response was a mere snort.)
The reality is that people are very much like the horses. Many Americans are standing in a similar babbling brook but still refusing to lower their heads for the much-needed refreshment and sustenance. On this particular matter, it seems that it's just a characteristic of the breed—the Trump Republican—that keeps them from attending to such an essential health requirement. In terms of the ongoing well-being of our country, it's an untenable pattern of behavior.
If people go without water long enough, pretty soon they'll be shriveling up and farting dust, and that's exactly where the GOP is headed—into a downward spiral of ethical and moral dehydration. It can't go on this way.
I try to avoid broad generalizations—and I realize that Republicans aren't all the same. While they're not my same breed of horse, we all share some of the same DNA. Each of us at times has refused to do what we know is best for us—and those times prove that jackass-stubbornness is part of our human genetic makeup.
And, much like a parable out of the Bible, the concept of "flowing waters" is merely a metaphor for the abundant, readily available source of truth. Sadly, while all of America is hitched-up together, we're not pulling in the same direction. A few misguided horses are fighting the harness chases and hurting the others—sapping much needed energy, avoiding the watering holes and hijacking our progress as a nation.
The second of Trump's Florida circus rallies proved that Republicans—even those aware of the moral depravity of their has-been, twice-impeached leader—are very much on board when it comes to avoiding truth. Stacking his reliable series of lies, Trump did his usual rah-rah-rah cheerleading. Even though his followers know their ex-president is without conscience or civility, these road-groupies continue to egg on their clown prince—believing that decency has no place in politics, and that the man who almost singlehandedly destroyed the most basic tenets of our democracy should be president once again.
Somehow, this energetic defiance of truth chooses to avoid all the facts. Call him what you will: a thief, traitor-insurrectionist, tax evader, womanizer, science denier, world-champion liar, unsuccessful businessman: Trump is, in every sense, a fraud. While he flies his banners of "making America great" and spouts his fictitious declarations of how he somehow represents the working men he shat upon, the Republican delusionals still look to him for leadership—instead of acknowledging the truth: good riddance to bad rubbish.
GOP: We all know what that abbreviation stands for—Grand Old Party. But, today, it has become an acronym for voluntary ignorance, abdication from responsible citizenship, acceptance of broad political monstrosity and for the herding-phenomenon of horses who are desperately thirsty but refuse to drink. Somehow, the chorus of corruption, always surrounding Trump, has failed to rouse those Republicans who actually believe there's a right and a wrong, crime and punishment, and that a traitor, who rallied his delusional followers to storm our Capitol, should somehow be given a free pass to another, likely worse, presidential debacle. Let's face it. Practice makes perfect—both for builders and for destroyers. Another four years of Trump could be the end to our American dream.
Well, folks, we are all there—standing by the watering hole that can save our nation. Sure, the likes of U.S.Reps. Matt Goetz, Utah's own Burgess Owens and Marjorie Taylor Green, along with the lunatic fringe who believe in pizza shops where powerful people are drinking the blood of children—are telling the thirsty throngs that the water is poisoned. While, admittedly, there are slants and questionable characterizations in many of the best news sources, most of the mainstream publications and channels still deliver the truth. Americans do have a choice.
The facts are there; it's our right and duty to drink. There is no excuse for being stubborn jackasses at this critical time, when Americans all need to face the truth and move ahead from the Trump disaster.
The author is a retired businessman, novelist, columnist and former Vietnam-era Army assistant public information officer. He resides in Riverton with his wife, Carol, and the beloved ashes of their mongrel dog.
