Here's another 2016 campaign fairy tale inspired by all the attacks, insults, name-calling, jokes, and down in the gutter humor. Some of these tales capture perfectly the anger and frustration of the voters watching a spectacle that becomes wilder and crazier each day. In this case, the political pigs who are subjected to the taunts and threats of a dangerous beast struggle to stay alive, and one finally finds a way to end the threat - just as Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and Hillary Clinton are battling Donald Trump for their political survival.
This is the fifth in a series of campaign fairy tales I started writing for the Huffington Post:
- Two Fairy Tales about Donald Trump
- Snow White and the Seven Candidates
- Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf
- Golditrump and the Three Bears
"The Story of the Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf" is another tale that is a perfect fit with what's happening in the election campaign. Rubio builds his house of straw, but it is easily blown down by the Big Bad Trump. Cruz builds his house of sticks, which is a little stronger, but the Big Bad Trump blows a little harder and knocks it down. Finally, Hillary creates an even stronger house of bricks, which is like her wall of security personnel, press people, assistants, and others she surrounds herself with for protection. Thus, she is able to stand up to the Big Bad Trump, so he not only can't blow her house down, but he gets all burned up in the process. That's just like what happens in the traditional story, where the wolf gets outwitted, and in the end, the little pig with the brick home is the last pig standing, because the bricks are stronger, and the pig is more crafty in getting the wolf to fall for some sneaky tricks. In the story - as in politics.
In this case, the original story, which comes from British folklore, was first printed in the 1840s. Then, it was included as "The Three Little Pigs" in The Nursery Rhymes of England, published in 1886, and it was republished in its best known form in 1890 in English Fairy Tales. In the traditional tale, the pig's mother doesn't have enough to support the family, so she sends the three pigs out to seek their fortune - you might think of the Republican and Democratic Parties sending out their chosen candidates to make their way in campaigning for the election.
Along the way, the three pigs (aka candidates - Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and Hillary Clinton) - encounter three men on the road and get the materials they need to build their houses. You might consider them like today's campaign financiers and managers. The first little pig, Rubio, gets a bundle of straw and builds his house with that. The second little pig, Cruz, gets a bundle of sticks for his house. And the third little pig, Clinton, gets a load of bricks to build her house.
Then, enter the Big Bad Wolf, Trump, along the road. As the story goes, the wolf asks the first pig with the straw house to let him in, but the pig says no, so he says, "I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house in," and he does so. After that, in some versions of the story, the wolf eats the little pig or he escapes. In any case, the Big Bad Trump has been doing a pretty good job of destroying Rubio's house of straw in virtually every state.
Next, as the story continues, the wolf asks the pig with the house of sticks for entry, but this pig says no, too, and the sticks, though stronger than straw, are not strong enough. So the wolf takes down this house, after which he eats up this pig or he escapes, much like the Big Bad Trump has been knocking down Cruz in most states.
But at the third house of bricks, the house is too strong. So though the wolf huffs and puffs again and again, he can't blow the house down. Then, he tries to trick the pig to come out of the house by asking to meet in various places. But the pig is too smart and outwits him each time, much like Clinton has managed to evade Trump's assorted attacks on her record and is still prevailing even more strongly in the Democratic race.
Finally, the wolf decides to sneak into the chimney and get the little pig that way. But the pig is too smart for him, puts a pot of water on a blazing fire, and just as the wolf comes down, the pig takes off the cover, and the wolf falls in. After that the little pig eats the wolf for supper and lives happily ever after, though in another version the wolf runs away with a burned rump and never goes back. In either case, the little pig with the brick house survives and thrives, much like what might happen in a Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump match-up, and Clinton outsmarts Trump. If so, as the story might end, she might either eat him up in the election tallies or he might run off back to his Trump businesses, and she and the country might live happily ever after. If only real life was like that.
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Gini Graham Scott, PhD, writes frequently about social trends and everyday life. She is the author of over 50 books with major publishers and has published 30 books through her company Changemakers Publishing and Writing. She writes books and proposals for clients and has written and produced over 50 short videos through Changemakers Productions and is a partner in a service that connects writers to publishers, agents, and the film industry. Her latest books are Scammed, Lies and Liars: How and Why Sociopaths Lie and How to Detect and Deal With Them, and The New Middle Ages: How the Growing Inequalities Between Rich and Poor Threaten Our Way of Life.