The Two Houses

 Two towns in Texas, separated by three hundred miles: Eagle Claw and Brownsville. Consistent with every bit of branding established over decades and especially over the past eight years makes it clear which would be the landing zone for Republican candidates and where the Democrats would show up. The difference came clear to me as I reflected on Cobra Kai. 

If you missed this little gem of retro-fun on Netflix, it is based on the Karate Kid films, and tells the story of two Karate Guys: Daniel and Johnny. One grew up following the path of his late sensei, Mister Myagi. The other lost the state championship by following the ways of the Cobra Kai dojo, and his fortunes have gone in another direction. He now drinks Coors. But once the series gets rolling, Johnny picks himself up and starts to put himself back together again. Eventually he runs afoul of his old sensei, the guy who instructed him to "sweep the leg" back in the eighties. Danielsan revives his master's style and begins training the area's youth in "Myagi-Do." Johnny takes his troubled band of teenagers to his new dojo, which he names "Eagle Fang." While the two middle aged Karate Guys try to work on their own middle aged crises, their young charges regularly trash one another's social gatherings and school functions, putting countless innocent extras at risk. 

This all came to me in a rush the morning after the State of the Union address by Joe Biden. The leader of the "for defense only" dojo who came out and spit the fire that an eighty year old man can. And the name-calling response from somewhere in South Florida where the former game show host continues to beg for money to help him pay off the half billion dollars he owes in fines. The Brownsville Dojo versus Eagle Claw. All the talk of revenge and retribution makes good TV I suppose, but it doesn't go very far when it comes to solving the problems facing us. 

Brownsville Joe called out his "predecessor" in hopes of getting him to tell his supporters to pass the bipartisan immigration reform bill that was quashed by the aforementioned Eagle Claw leader. This feels like a pretty empty gesture, but it's exactly the kind of thing that takes place during an election year, not unlike the brinksmanship being played with our country's budget. It's not about coming together to solve problems, but rather to stick a finger in the problem and exacerbate it. If you keep picking at it, it will never heal. 

Tune in this season as Eagle Claw and Brownsville continue to square off in anticipation of the Battle Royale in November. Don't expect things to get a lot better in the meantime. That's bad TV and bad politics.