Analogies can be fun, and sometimes enlightening. Everything in the world around us is tied together in some way, shape, or form. Uncovering these connections is part of what makes life so interesting.
The following post will describe a situation that I’ve witnessed many times over my decades of hunting both large and small game. The descriptions of what one may see in these situations - will be graphic.
If you are an animal rightist, this post is not for you.
The hunter is sitting on an elevated stand overlooking a wooded draw below. A line of rubs and scrapes follows a fire-lane that runs perpendicular to the draw. A large white-tailed buck has been working this area for five or six years. The hunter knows his prey, and is entirely focused on harvesting this one buck.
The hunter turns left, sweeping the hillside for any signs of a deer. When he turns back to his front the buck is there, standing broadside in the fire-lane at a distance of 100 yards. The hunter did not see the buck step into the fire-lane, it had just appeared, standing motionless, facing to the hunters left.
The hunter’s heart rate doubles. To steady himself, he takes two long, deep breaths. He has hunted this same stand for more years than he cares to remember, and there has never been an opportunity quite like this.
His rifle rests in his arms. He slowly raises the firearm to his shoulder, settling the crosshairs slightly behind the buck’s left front shoulder. He squeezes the trigger.
The report is loud. Besides the suddenly silent woods, there is no indication that the hunter has fired his rifle. The deer has not moved. Stunned, the hunter works the bolt, placing another shell in the chamber. He aims slightly lower and pulls the trigger.
The rifle fires again. The hunter’s ears are ringing, but the deer is standing still, looking in his direction. Did he knock his scope off when he bumped the rifle on his truck door? Where are the bullets going? Where should he aim next?
The buck starts walking upslope, towards the ridge of the draw on the hunter’s left.
Looking from afar, it would appear that the hunter missed twice in a row from a relatively easy distance of 100 yards. But if the hunter got down from his stand, and walked 100 yards down the draw, to the point where the buck was standing while the hunter lobbed his two 150-grain bullets at the motionless buck, then he would see something different.
Up close, the hunter would find a river of blood following the buck as it walks upslope, heading for the ridge above. Then the hunter would realize that his shots were true. The first bullet had taken out the upper portion of the deer’s lungs. What’s remains, resembles the fingers of a sea anemone.
The second shot centered the buck’s heart. There were only small fragments of heart muscle remaining in the deer’s chest cavity after the second shot.
Both bullets exited, which explains the river of blood along the deer’s path.
It’s a dead buck walking.
This buck was past his prime before deer season even began. He had held on to this territory for years, but despite the size of his antlers, his strength was gone. If one of the many young bucks in the area had challenged him, his territory would have already been lost. He was just bluffing the younger bucks with his oversized 12-point rack.
Again, from a distance, this buck appears to be just fine. It’s walking straight, with its antlers gleaming in the afternoon light.
But the deer’s heart is gone, so there is nothing to circulate the blood through its system.
Its lungs are gone, so there is no way to exchange carbon dioxide for oxygen.
All that is left, is the appearance of an intact body.
Of course, the aged buck is the GOP.
The 2006 Midterms were the first shot.
The General Election of 2008 was the second shot.
The Southeast, is the deer’s antlers.
The Northeast was the deer’s lungs.
The West was the deer’s heart.
The GOP has poisoned the well for blacks, Asians, Jews, Latinos, and the young: basically, everyone who is not a Southern White Christian Fundamentalists, and they even lost some of them! How can a national political party possibly recover, when its most notable spokespeople are: Joe the Plumber, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Tito the Builder, and Sarah Palin?
But the hunter knows none of this. The buck is still walking, and the hunter still has one bullet left in his magazine. And no hunter worth his salt would stop firing as long as his quarry is still in range.
The 2010 Midterms are approaching.
Chamber another round. Put the crosshairs on the vitals. And pull the damn trigger.