More sports metaphors

Conservatives, it has often been noted, support their "team" with all the zealousness that they support their favorite sports franchise. This really is as dumb as comparing the fiscal policy of a nation with the budget of a family. There are different reasons for this, but they betray the same intellectual weakness.

For all the ferocity of a rivalry between say, the Packers and the Bears, the confrontration has a certain arbitrariness. Football teams are the same in many ways. They wear similar uniforms, just with different colors and symbols. They play by the same rules and respect the authority of officials. They use the same terminology and the plays come from the same ideas. And, crucially, when one team wins, that's it. If the Packers win they don't get to install universal health care and if the Bears win they don't get to subsidize too big to fail banks. You can switch them around as this wasn't meant to be representative of either political party. But to a non-fan, the contest is pretty meaningless.

This isn't true in politics and government. Each side represents clearly different ideas and when one "wins" they get the power to implement them. While a win for the Packers makes their fans feel good, it really is just a tickmark in the appropriate column. But when a shithead like scott walker wins by lying, manipulating, and spending a boatload of money from people who don't even live in this state, there are real consequences. All the "rah, rah, rah" doesn't really disguise the fact that republicans aren't playing by the rules, ignore the refs, and count on the rabid worship of their fans to cover the con-job of stealing the nation's wealth for their owners.

I guess I don't get it. Sports fans will spend hours memorizing the statistics and rosters of their favorite teams, but the political equivalent takes their party's official pronouncements as gospel and can barely be bothered to spend that "magic 5 minutes" thinking about what it actually means. If your team loses, nothing real happens and you live to see another day. But a pampered, elitist hypocrite tells you he's "just like you" and you believe it. How many morons out there said they liked bush because "they wanted to have a beer with him?" Now, maybe if your team wins and they get to invade other countries and draft your gullible ass to die for oil there would be a reason to act like sports is life or death. But can't you spare a few minutes from comparing quarterback ratings to do a little critical thinking about issues that may actually, tangibly affect your life?