It is as lasting an American literary metaphor as Captain Ahab and the white whale or Hester Prynne and her scarlet “A.”
We are, of course, referring to that branch of science known as cartoon thermodynamics. The first law, as defined by the late film critic Roger Ebert, is worthy of Isaac Newton: “Any body suspended in space will remain in space until made aware of its situation.”
In layman’s terms, that means that Wile E. Coyote and Daffy Duck can race off a cliff and hover in midair until they make the fatal mistake of looking down.
This is akin to what occurred in Washington this month — both the Republican and Democratic parties have long been in trouble, but now circumstance has forced them to look down. . . .
As much as ill-fated former Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus tried to mask it, Trump’s nomination was nothing short of a hostile takeover of the GOP. Of course, Sanders battled Clinton all through the primaries without ever deigning to join the Democratic Party.
Click for the full story. It’s a good read by Walter Shapiro. Posted Sep 12, 2017 5:02 AM.