On Cleaning a Litter Box and the Democratic Primary

To my shame, I completely cleaned out our cats' litter box in the basement this morning. For one reason or another, I had neglected it, and was gone for several days, besides. So, it was a nasty bit of work, but it was time to empty it completely and replace the old litter with fresh, new clumping litter.

So, I put two kitchen sized plastic garbage bags in a trash can and moved the old, soiled litter, complete with nasty leavings from our cats, and the wet litter in it, scooping it all out. Then, I tied off the double bags and hauled them upstairs and put them in the trash wheelie bin by the garage. After that, I washed the litter box thoroughly in the laundry sink, dried it, and refilled it with clean, odorless cat litter, and vowed to do better about scooping out what the cats leave on a more frequent basis.

As I was holding my nose while cleaning the old stuff out, I had a sudden flash of lucidity about our current Democratic Primary race, last night's raucous debate, and the desperate need to defeat Donald Trump in November, double-bag him, and take him out to the wheelie bin by the garage. However, before we can do that, we need to clean out the field of candidates and reduce their numbers to a workable set. Or, maybe it was just the effect of the ammonia odor. Who can say?

It seems to me that, following Super Tuesday's election, it should be clear to all but three candidates that it is time to exit this race. On March 4, I hope all of the candidates check their delegate counts and that those who are clearly nonviable will make the wise decision to withdraw from the race. That will make it possible for us to narrow our choices down for the rest of the primaries, so we can see where things are going. Right now, there is so much noise coming from the bottom of the list that we can't tell where their supporters will go.

Despite what some say, after just three states have weighed in, there is no clear leader who has any assurance of having a majority of delegates. Once the field has narrowed, though, people will be forced to focus more clearly on their decisions, and some sort of logical sense of the race will emerge as they do.

Fewer cats; fewer turds to clean out of the litter box. Then, even if neglected, it will be easier to deal with.
Fewer candidates; more opportunities to see who the winner is likely to be and the simpler it will be for voters to make good choices.

That's how I see it this morning. Let's clean that litter box.