When Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas)
chose to read “Green Eggs and Ham” as part of his filibuster to stop the
Affordable Care Act, it raises a question in my mind. For those unfamiliar with
the work, the protagonist is constantly hounded to try green eggs and ham, to
which he firmly and repeatedly replies “NO!” At the conclusion, he finally
caves and finds that he does, in fact, enjoy said dish.
The irony of the situation is that
he used a story about being open to trying new things as you might like them in
an attempt to stop something new that, according to recent polls, the people
are willing to try and would like to see go into effect.
That being said, was the reading of
the book merely part of Senator Cruz’s attempt to kill time, or was it a veiled
message that he does, in fact, like the Affordable Care Act but is putting up a
token protest because that’s what is expected of him as a representative of the
Republicans?
Following this demonstration of
reading comprehension, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) claimed that ‘government
shutdown is not some damn game.’ However, it would appear that it is story time.
