How many does it take?
Willoughby
You know the joke, how many ___ does it take to change a lightbulb? For fun, I created a few focusing on today’s politics.
How many MAGAs does it take to change a lightbulb? Answer unknown because they would rather blame the light not working on someone and gripe about it – they don’t want to fix the problem.
How many Berniecrats does it take to change a lightbulb? Answer – unknown because they never finish the job – they can only turn a bulb to the left and that doesn’t work.
How many did it take for President Trump to change a lightbulb – how many for President Biden? For Trump it is 125. He would hire one person from Mar-a-Lago to do the job but would bill the government for 125 and if he got caught he would just say it is
Fake News. The answer for Biden is that with his years of experience he feels it is something everyone should agree to do so he asked Sen. Mitch McConnell to join him in a bipartisan decision to change a bulb, but Sen. McConnell does not want to be seen talking to a Democrat so he has not given an answer, yet.
How many House Representatives does it take to change a lightbulb? For Democrats, when Pelosi was speaker of the House, it took two, her and one janitor. Under Speaker Johnson it would take a vote of 215 Republicans, but he doesn’t want to bring it to the floor as that would result in a bipartisan vote and that would not be acceptable. Besides, Marjorie Taylor Greene, has a QAnon take on it that the lightbulb is actually a George Soros surveillance camera and wants a full investigation first.
How many senators does it take to change a lightbulb? In a Democracy a majority rules right, well no, not in the Senate. It would take 60 votes. Democrats should be able to pass with a majority, but Senator Kyrsten Sinema is not sure which party she wants to belong to so that would be a problem. Republicans know they only need 40 votes to stop the process and they want to stop it. Some are howling that they will only pass it if it is an incandescent bulb, not an LED bulb, they are spending hours on FOX screaming that Biden wants to take away their incandescent lightbulbs.
It might go to the Supreme Court to decide, so how many Supreme Court Justices does it take to change a lightbulb? The answer is easy, but the question complicates it as written. Since there were no lightbulbs when the Constitution was written, the conservative justices on the court, who are strict originalists, have problems deciding. The answer is a qualified 5, but that is the Justice count. They are in favor, but want their benefactors, like oil baron Paul Novelly and billionaire Harlan Crow to weigh in first and secretly, and Ginny Thomas and her moneyed supporters also must be in favor if Clarence is to vote yes.
How many voters under the age of 25 does it take to change a lightbulb? One, but before one would, he/ she would post on TicTok and check the response first.
How many seniors does it take to change a lightbulb? Seniors are warned against climbing ladders so they need others to help. But since 22.4% of health care support workers are immigrants and some in Washington are trying to diminish that number, maybe the answer is two people for three out of four lightbulb changers, for now, but a wait list for lightbulb help in the future.
The ‘how many joke’, always a bit of sarcasm, is fun to play with, but when you try to think about what the answers mean it is not so funny. Maybe we all might agree, at least, that we would like many people who affect our lives to “see the light.”
(Tim Willoughby moved to the Eastern Sierra more than 10 years ago after a 30-year career as a teacher and principal. He was the Democratic candidate for the 25th Congressional District in 2004. Willoughby also pens a weekly local history column for the Aspen Times.)