The Party That Cried Wolf

Some years ago I contributed money to a friend whose Mom ran as a Democrat for a seat in the Ohio General Assembly, and won.  I’m glad I was able to help her out, but ever since I’ve been on the email list of the Ohio Democratic Party.  I have to confess that I have read just about all of the over-the-top emails from Ohio Democrats that I ever care to read.

The emails come about once a week.  Their tone is always the same — just this side of outright hysteria — and the message is the same too:  John Kasich and the Republicans have just proposed something, and it is so grossly offensive, so fundamentally outrageous, and so palpably nonsensical that the Democratic Party will fight to the death to defeat it — and they need my contribution to do so. From the emails, you’d think that, under Kasich’s horribly misguided leadership, all of Ohio would be aflame right now.  Of course, that hasn’t happened.

The emails suggest that the Democrats immediately oppose everything Governor Kasich proposes, without even taking a reasonable time to consider his proposal and develop some kind of reasoned response to it.  Perhaps that kind of unrestrained resistance is welcomed by the “base” of the Democratic Party, but I’m reminded of Aesop’s fable of the boy who cried “wolf.”  After he falsely cried “wolf” on many occasions and saw neighboring shepherds run to his fields in vain, he cried “wolf” in earnest and realized that his calls were ignored.

When every proposal seems to be greeted with the same extravagant response, it’s hard to attach much credibility to those responses.  When the Democrats really want people to listen to what they have to say, will anyone outside of loyal party members pay any attention?