This isn’t Football!

Here I sit on an airplane to Bloomington, Minnesota. Slowly drifting in and out of consciousness, I start to think how certain people in Minnesota hated Brett Farve, with every fiber of their body, and now they look upon him as a star. At the same time many people in Green Bay, Wisconsin have burned their green and yellow #4 jerseys. Having played my fair share of sports, and watched even more, I understand how someone can be swallowed up in the excitement of a sports team. It’s intoxicating. It’s comforting and exhilarating to be part of the brethren that defends and supports the “home” team. It’s where you’re from and part of your identity, but what I can’t wrap my brain around is how that gets translated to politicians and political parties?

Let me explain my confusion. People identify themselves as Vikings, Packers, Bills, Dolphins, or Cardinals. People idolize names like Farve, Manning, Brady, Payton, Namath, and Unitas because they need heroes. They even overlook the missteps of their favorites like Burris, Merriman, and Lewis because they want to believe that the real world and the gridiron are separate places of worship. Where I’m challenged is when we apply these same rules to political parties and politicians. If you are a Democrat then you have to hate Republicans, like Giants hate Eagles. You must hate those evil money grubbing religious fanatics called Conservatives, just like 49ers still hate Elway. Conservatives look upon Liberals as old hippies who have smoked too much dope, hugged too many trees, and ate too much granola; just like Redskins look at Cowboys. How much blind hate can one city have for names like Staubach, Landry, and Romo.

In sports the polarity of opinion is based on where you’re from and where you went to school. They’re carved in stone as a way of holding onto your youth and your childhood allegiances. This is healthy and provides the vicarious excitement that gets the juices flowing on game day, but applying this emotional methodology to our politics is ruining our political system.
What are we thinking? Pelosi, Frank, Gingrich, Bush, and Obama aren’t sports superstars. They are employees. They were elected by you and I to do a job. Yet, people blindly defend them like they are going to lead their team to the SuperBowl. Recently, I heard an interview of a prominent San Francisco political pundit who went on and on about the great things Rep. Pelosi has done for this country, yet when asked for specifics they came up empty. This is the kind of blind star worship which is preventing us from having reasonable conversations. Ted Kennedy, who recently passed away, was given a send off commensurate of a hero. Even though I never agreed with is politics or his personal behavior, I did think he was a patriot; but a hero?

Are we so starved for true heroes that we cling to these employees who have never done anything courageous in their lives? Maybe it is time we stop wearing Blue and Red like it some kind of team jersey. Maybe it’s time we revisit our Democratic Republic roots. Start realizing we are sending local representation to Washington to speak our mind instead of the political team’s (Party’s) mind. Congress isn’t the Pro-Bowl and the White House isn’t the prize for the MVP of the league. Come on people, let’s open our eyes and look as critically at our own team (Party) and players (Politicians) as we look at the other side. Maybe then we will all realize there is room for more ideas and we are all in this together. I think we could get a lot more done if we start looking at this as one team, but that’s just the dream that is drifting through my head as I listen to the hum of jet engines at 30,000 feet.