Can We Stop Acting Like Partisan Politics Are a Sports Team Rivalry?
I think some people suffer from the delusion that they are discussing a Major League pennant race when they speak about party politics. They exhibit the same blind loyalty, the same loathing of the opposition.
Well, after all, there are two distinct teams wearing different uniforms (blue and red anyone?) Both have a long-standing rivalry(see Red Sox vs. Yankees). Their fans are much more passionate about fabled bad blood between teams than the players themselves are (Some Democrats and Republicans have been very good friends for years “off the field,” just like competing athletes).
I mean, seriously. Do you really think Trump and Clinton suddenly decided in 2015 to hate each other’s guts on a whim after decades of family friendship? They are still swilling the good stuff together at parties and laughing at the peasants while thanking their Dark Lord Satan that the American people are so easily distracted and riled up by utter nonsense and trivialities.
The opposing teams, both political and athletic, put on a good show for the fans. That’s what they’re paid very well to do. They both cheat, it’s just to what extent, and who gets ratted out or caught in the act.
And the fans are in total denial about it. Yeah, Tom Brady deflated his balls (giggle), but do you honestly believe he’s the only one in the NFL guilty of this? C’mon.
But hey — it’s just a game in the end. There’s always next year, right?
Acceptable attitude for sports. For politics, not so much. Because last I checked, professional athletes don’t have the power to decide if I’m able to afford medical treatment, whether I’m earning the same wages as a dude, or if I’m able to vote in free and fair elections.
So can we please stop perpetuating the myth that we have to support one of the two major (league) political teams or we will suffer plagues of locusts, grasshoppers, and neo-cons? There are Cubs (third-party) fans out there you know. Really, there are. Laugh all you want. People laughed at the Red Sox until 2004.
The truth of the matter is that by treating politics just like team sports, we forfeit our rights and liberties by trivializing the immense impact the Partisan Dog and Pony Show has on all of our day-to-day lives.
These aristocrats masquerading as politicians are determined to continue exploiting our weaknesses against us to their own advantage. And we make it so easy by focusing on the much-celebrated partisan rivalry instead of devising a strategy to win the end-game.
Because watching your ball club lose a big game at Fenway will bum you out for a few days, and life will move on. But these shitbags in Washington are not fucking playing, so neither can we.
