The gambling debate comes back to the Alabama Legislature every year or two, like a 40- or 50-year-old rerun of a sitcom.
The characters, all performing on a tiny, windowless set, return from the previous adventure to perform a variation on the story we’ve seen countless times before.
A plan is made. The plan goes awry. The players make some quips and perform a few pratfalls.
Toward the end of the show, there’s a beat where the hijinks halt, the piano and strings come up on the soundtrack, and the actors suddenly try to tie the narrative to a social concern or some issue in the news.
Then, suddenly, the story ends. The conflicts get put aside; the status quo is restored. And nothing meaningful changes.
