KNOW YOUR TROPES

First of all, what is a trope? A trope is a figure of speech which can boil a complex idea down to a few words. All cultures have tropes. The beauty of all cultures is in discovering the tropes unique to each culture.

In the case of President Obama and the recent comments comparing him to a Tar Baby. Let's examine the evidence carefully before we "jump off the deep end" into instant pundit land. In the story, all Americans know and love, Br'er Rabbit is tricked by Fox into having a fight with a "straw man," or in this case, a "Tar Baby." Fox planned for Br'er Rabbit to get stuck to "Tar Baby" allowing him and Bear to make a meal of him. Instead Br'er Rabbit tricks both of them into tossing him into the briar patch, where he makes good his escape. Watch the video excerpted from Walt Disney's "Song of the South" to refresh your memory on exactly how the story goes.

The point here is that if we follow the story to its logical conclusion, the Democrats/liberals who get stuck to "Tar Baby" Obama come out the winners in this story, only because the Republicans/far right are so stupid Br'er Rabbit/liberals trick them into giving them exactly what they want.

So, what's the downside here? Oh yeah, Obama appears to be foolish for the moment. But, if the story ends anything like it does in "Song of the South" the good guys win. "He who laughs last, laughs best."

Before we "jump off the deep end" we need to know our tropes and how to use them. It certainly wouldn't do for Fox to use our tropes against us. Next time, maybe we oughta beg Fox not to throw us into "the briar patch," instead of "jumping off the deep end" before we look at a situation thoughtfully carefully weighing all of our options and the resulting consequences.