This is a new twist on an old tale, sent in by a friend. It certainly does seem that new senators and representatives often come riding into town on a white horse promising to "change" Washington as we know it. In almost no time most of those new hard chargers "adapt" to the Washington reality, and adopt their number one priority: re-election! To get re-elected, they need money - lots of money, and to get lots of money they have to return favors granted them (read money), by voting contrary to the best interests of the people who put them into office. It's always been that way, and probably will never change. Here's that old tale with the new twist.
If you start with a cage containing five monkeys and, inside the cage, hang a banana on a string from the top. Then you place a set of stairs under the banana. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and climb toward the banana.
As soon as he touches the stairs, you spray all the other monkeys with cold water. After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result ... all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.
Now, put the cold water away.
Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and attempts to climb the stairs. To his shock, all of the other monkeys beat the crap out of him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs he will be assaulted.
Next, remove another of the original five monkeys, replacing it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment....with enthusiasm.
Then, replace a third original monkey with a new one, followed by a fourth, then the fifth. Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs he is attacked. Most of the monkeys that are beating him up have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs. Neither do they know why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.
Finally, having replaced all of the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys will have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, none of the monkeys will try to climb the stairway for the banana.
Why, you ask? Because in their minds....that is the way it has always been!
This, my friends, is how Congress operates... and is why, from time to time, all of the monkeys need to be REPLACED ALL AT THE SAME TIME.
