A lot of people like to say that politics is a lot like sports. I mostly agree. It is like a sport. But, since I like to quibble about things, here’s a question for you.
Which sport?
Baseball is America’s game, but football has the Dallas Cowboys, which is America’s Team. Soccer is America’s fastest-growing sport, auto racing has America’s most passionate fans. And so it goes. Starting to sound like politics already - which candidate is the best, which one has the most passionate followers, which one has the best chance to win?
And the parallels don’t stop there. We ask which sport is America’s game, but we also argue about how to decide it.
America’s game would be the most popular, of course. But, popular for who?
Football argues that it has the biggest tv ratings and the biggest average crowd size for its 16 regular season games. But baseball says a lot more people will see a game over its162 game regular season. Besides, while most baseball stadiums have a lot fewer seats, those seats are filled a lot more often.
Then there’s the question of participation. How many people actually play those sports? Volleyball is really popular as a pick-up game, and in some places Bocci has a big following. They even opened a summer league a few years ago in Southampton.
Should we only count games played by adults? That would leave out a lot of college football players, and all the high school baseball and football games. But counting teens, or counting everyone playing a sport, opens the door to bowling and a lot more soccer. How about martial arts and badminton which are - by some surveys - the 10th most popular sports in the nation. Yes, surveys can disagree.
But, let’s get back to the point. Oh, sorry, I haven’t made the point yet.
The reason politics is like sports is the fans. Yes, the fans who develop a blind loyalty to a team - win or lose, even over decades - but who have the unpredictable habit of turning rabid every so often and demanding the coach be fired, the owner sell the franchise or - when real money is on the line - vote against a bond issue that would allow the team’s stadium to be expanded.
Yep, just like politics. The support from your base is loud and proud and colorful, right up to the day when the fans desert in droves and demand that the team owners should be dumped as well. Kind of like the French Revolution. Long live the KIng!
In our modern times, fans just vote with their wallets. Ticket sales go down. Way down. They also vote with their feet, and walk away from the games.
Which brings us to our nation’s current political fiasco.
The fans of our President are still loud, at least at his rallies, and the political machinery of the Republican Party is solidly behind him, paying the small price of opposing everything they stood for over the past few decades…things like state’s rights, the rule of law and opposition to the growing national debt.
Soon we may get to see some Supreme Court justices who only got their job by manipulating the nominating system rule on whether the abuse of political power is illegal, or unconstitutional, or whatever word the lawyers think fits best. Should be interesting.
And, you will see some Republicans walking. Walking away from the polls on Election Day, walking away from the party when it asks for campaign donations, and walking away from their elected jobs in Washington when they begin to think they will soon be in the minority party and lose all those lovely perks.
Oh, wait. That’s already happening.
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