California GOP Rep. Deving Nunes has likened his Republican colleagues to "Lemmings in Suicide Vests" due to their herd behavior in blindly following their leadership over the edge concerning the current shutdown/debt ceiling fight. (Presumably the vests are there so they can detonate themselves before they feel the icy chill of the water below...a double safeguard self-destruct mechanism, if you will.) And then, without the slightest hint of irony or self-awareness -- with perverse pride even, he has continued to vote in lockstep with them.
But here's the problem. Lemmings don't commit suicide.
The whole thing was a fake. A settup. Some producer of a nature documentary wanted cool footage of an unusual nature scene and poof came up with the idea of suicidal lemmings.
The Arctic rodents were placed on a snow-covered turntable and filmed from various angles to produce a "migration" sequence; afterwards, the helpless creatures were transported to a cliff overlooking a river and herded into the water...at no time are more than a few dozen lemmings ever shown on the screen at once. The entire sequence was faked using a handful of lemmings deceptively photographed to create the illusion of a large herd of migrating creatures.
Lemmings, like many rodents experience periodic booms in population that cause their numbers to swell. Either because of abundant food, pleasant weather, lack of predators or the irresistible musk of those slutty lemming hotties twerking in the Norwegian tundra -- good times produce an excess of these little buggers and that in turn places a strain on the habitats resources. So the original myth was intended to explain that in reaction to a scarcity of food and space, hundreds of the lemmings will move as a group toward a cliff, and plunge off in a noble sacrifice for the good of the tribe. Some versions even have the brave little bastards swimming out in the frigid arctic water until they become exhauseted, and presumable the mass hypnosis wears off -- too late, they drown unable to make it back to shore.
Lies. All lies. In fact, when the population of lemmings becomes greater than the area can accomodate -- they do migrate, but off in all directions and to live, not die. Additionally the "noble" aspect of these varmints has been greatly exaggerated. In their struggles to obtain adequate resources, and in the absence of a "population control" mechanism such as disease or wolverine picnic brigade, these adorable little savages are about a million times more likely to kill each other than kill themselves.
"As the numbers build up, they get more vicious. They basically fight over breeding territory."
...female lemmings will bite another's litter of three to five babies to death in a matter of seconds. "But so far, we have never had any evidence that they are cannibals. They just seem to kill one other and go away."
"When their numbers get very high, they start killing each other."
So, in conclusion while Representative Nunes is a dissembling asshole or a willful idiot, and almost certainly both -- his analogy is apt. The GOP are lemmings. As their numbers have increased because of disgusting nordic-rat sex run amok, they have had to scramble and fight over an ever smaller pool of resources (cable news interviews and tea-party-moran-money) and realizing -- perhaps subconsciously -- that there isn't enough to go around, they have begun to wander around aimlessly in search of attention and grift chewing through their own kind like Chris Christie trapped in a prison made of butter. Some craven, opportunistic
wannabe cable news journalists nature photographers have utilized deception and artifice to trick the larger Disney-loving public into thinking the fuzzy pests are solving nature's puzzles by sacrificing themselves when in reality it's all a staged farce covering up the fact that they've sucked up all the Purina Lemming Chow and don't know how to take care of the next generation of
teabaggers lice-encrusted, furry ice-lizards. They aren't "following" anything or anyone, they're not doing the herd any favors -- they are looking out for their own fat bellies. And like lemmings -- acting solely in their own, short-term self-interest, they've gorged themselves drunk as the environment withered beneath their gluttonous, slobbery jaws (not a forward-thinking animal this genius-weasel) We've gotten in this mess because their natural predators, foxes, eagles and bears have been decimated by pollution and global warming and since they're basically nasty ass vermin they have thrived in the barren "every rat for itself" wasteland they created. Ayn Rand would be proud, if she weren't dead and also a tobacco-junkie/welfare deadbeat. And also, the suicide vest was never meant to kill themselves -- if you look closely it has a delay switch and a tear-away harness. Don't let these cute, diminutive murderers fool you. It's all about the nuts and berries they can gather and there isn't a noble bone in their furry little meatsack.