LOCKED HORNS: A BATTLE TO THE DEATH OF BOTH COMBATANTS

LOCKED HORNS (Google photo)...

A BATTLE TO THE DEATH, WITH NO VICTOR (Google photo)

Tuesday, 8:30 AM.  31 degrees F at the ferry dock, 30 on the back porch.  Wind SSW, mostly calm with light gusts.  The sky is clear with some haze, the humidity 92%.  The barometer is rising, currently at 30.18" of mercury.  The weather for the next week is predicted to have mixed skies, with high temperatures in the 40's and lows above freezing. with some chances of showers.  It is a beautiful, quiet morning, filled with bird song.
   The Democrats and Republicans have really been at it again, with accusations by each of the other doing what amounts to treason.  Well, perhaps they are both right, but that's about par for the course these days.
   The fights over whether to repair or replace Obamacare and immigration, and the virtually futile struggle over the nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, have all been filled with unbelievable rancor, and the impossibility of achieving any real progress.  Some commentators have characterized their actions as having "locked horns" with each other.  The standard dictionary definitions of the phrase are pretty mild, such as "challenging each other," or "involved in controversy."
   In nature, "to lock horns" means a fight to the death, and it is invariably a fight to the deaths of both  combatants.  Their horns being inextricably intertwined, and the animals exhausted to the point of death, they finally die of thirst or are killed and eaten by predators.
   "Locked horns" is an idiom not to be used casually, and in the case of the two political parties, a fate to be avoided at all costs if they wish to survive.  American voters are tired of this insanity, and are in a mood to jettison them both.
  I see no victor in this dangerous political game of locking horns which,  if it continues, will almost certainly lead to the death of both parties.