Continuing the expeditions of Jeff MacNelly, James Kilpatrick, and Eugene McCarthy, with apologies.

The Dark Presence

Long elusive and unspoken about, but lately a visible void and a subject of wide discourse, the Dark Presence rocketed into public view during the beginning of the endless wars of the 21st Century. Often taking the form of a featureless and shrouded bureaucrat, the DP can mix with the general population when it senses the time is right to maximize its influence on a wavering head of state. Through whisper-like voicings of some depth, the DP can turn the searching head and command the listening ear. This underestimated entity is rumored to be the Iago de facto to some of history’s most tragic figures. It may have brought down more politicians than junket mixers and video evidence.

In repose, as is its habit during times of general consensus, the Dark Presence provides little evidence of its impressive CV, instead biding its time in corners, spinning webs and deepening its opacity. Its incarnations over the years have progressively grown in stature, and it is said the the DP harbors a secret ambition to become a black hole that swallows up the entire government.

 

-Danny Grosso

Continuing the expeditions of Jeff MacNelly, James Kilpatrick, and Eugene McCarthy, with apologies.

The Compromise

Thought to be extinct for at least two election cycles, the Compromise has become the Capitol’s UFO – rarely seen but always fleeting.  Forever enigmatic, even in its heyday among back-slapping country club pols, the long-armed Compromise of late became more the spectre or puff of smoke, a trail leading to nowhere, a closing door. Once the aspirational ideal of the ambitious, the creature is now a discarded relic of bygone age. However, it has long been thought that the Compromise had, in opportune times, rooted itself into the Constitutional system.  If true, this forecasts the possible return of the species under proper conditions.

 

-Danny Grosso

Continuing the expeditions of Jeff MacNelly, James Kilpatrick, and Eugene McCarthy, with apologies.

The Gerrymander

Part fanciful artistry and part killer calculation, the Gerrymander is a fluid, long-tailed and hump-backed beast, sometimes horned and toothsome, borne of the angry coupling of partisan victory and mercilessness. It fashions its lair by stealing away bits and pieces of its neighbors’ holdings until it has assembled a safe, homogeneous district to call home. It then sets about making rules for the manse designed to convince those unlikely to conform that they should remove themselves from the district. The ensuing exodus ingeniously insures the survival of the new rules by purging dissenting voices, thereby also guaranteeing the safety of the Gerrymander itself.

The Gerrymander is content to lie quietly in its misshapen habitat, and await its eventual demise that will come with a change of legislative majority. The lifespan of the species was once thought to be short, but is now clearly increasing. This is likely due to a recent change of climate that provides for the growth of a sheltering political canopy – one that may protect the Gerrymander from its traditional enemies, reform and sunlight.

 

-Danny Grosso