Hitler, Witches, and Obamacare-- Oh My!

 I’ve always strayed away from writing about power for English class.  The fear that I’d spout out ten bajillion clichés that the teacher has already heard about Hitler’s bloodthirsty conquest for control of Europe was just too great. Let’s hope this connection between Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and the present day can contain a little more original thought.

            In The Crucible, Abigail Williams and her posse of young girls wrongly condemn several townspeople to death by crying witchcraft. Why? Because it’s the only way 17- and 18-year-old girls can have power over anything in a patriarchal, theocratic Puritan society. Abigail yearns for the hanging of Elizabeth Proctor because she wants John Proctor for her own husband, since—other than calling people witches—having her dream husband is the only way a woman in Salem can hold power.

            And what is the only way a political party can hold power? Well, the American people—though they don’t exactly take advantage of it—have total power over which party is elected to rule. So, a party’s only weapon is pushing its agenda through Congress. And with the conflict over Obamacare, this weapon has been fired far too many times. The stubbornness of Democrats—because they somehow think that passing a 1,000-page bill no one had the time to read was okay the first time—and Republicans—because they can’t handle a loss—has led to a government shutdown. Because our representatives in Washington—whom we elected out of faith that they would make America stronger—can’t put their big-boy pants on and work together, countless government workers have been furloughed and wonderful programs like those of NASA have been forced to a standstill. It seems to me that where there is a power struggle, someone always gets hanged.