Senator Barack Obama appears to have won the “Potomac Primary” – Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. Delegates will be delivered proportionately to both Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton. Squabbles over the role and use of superdelegates continue. And Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania are now being called the firewall for Clinton that other states with votes long since counted didn’t turn out to be.
One of the reasons abusive relationships are so difficult to leave and end for good is that both parties often prefer the familiar dysfunction to the unknown of a healthy relationship.
The way in which some people describe the Clintons’ hypnotic control over the electorate might be said to parallel that familiar dysfunction. And the suggestions made by Obama of how he believes government should function and leaders should rule sound healthy.
Voters need to decide, just as a person leaving an abusive relationship must, whether they are ready to trade in the familiar but not so functional for the unknown but hopefully healthy. And this is no small judgment to make, since treatment for addiction of any type rarely succeeds at more than a 35% rate.
Do you buy this analogy? If not, why not? And if so, which do you think the voters will choose: the familiar, or the unknown?