Watching Super Bowl week without a real dog in the fight reminds me that one of my principle motivations in sports is to hate certain teams. The Colts title last year was the first by one of my big four (Colts, Pacers, Reds, IU) since 1990, and only the 4th of my lifetime (81 and 87 Hoosiers as well). That means that most post-seasons, I'm left hunting for reasons to care. That reason is typically because I hate one of the teams involved. This year, I'm partially motivated by Eli's presence, but mostly, I just hate the Patriots.
The primary season is sort of that way for me too. I grew up extremely political. My grandparents are staunch Democrats; my folks are Republicans. I used to care deeply. Since then, I've come to believe that politics are not the best method to change society and have moved my life and my interests in a different, and I think more productive direction. Most years, I don't have a dog in the fight since no one out there really cares about the issue that is most important to me personally (poverty and immigrants' rights). Last election, I participated in the traditional Latin American protest vote of voting "en blanco". I went to the poll, voted, and left the ballot for president blank.
This year has been different. I still don't have anyone that I want to vote for. Ah, but I have people to hate! For specific policy reasons that I'm not going to go into nor defend (save your emails telling me why I'm wrong; we aren't going there), I HATE Hilliary Clinton and Mitt Romney. Violently, violently dislike them; I mean Patriots level hatred. Obama and McCain could be the reincarnations of Filmore and Nixon, and I would still be rooting for them; should either one go up against Clinton or Romney next fall, they have my vote. If they go up against each other, I'm lost. I've paid more attention to politics in the last three months than I had in the last three years combined. And that's entirely driven by my hatred of two of the major candidates. I don't really care who wins, but I sure care who loses.
Sports comes full circle. If you can't have someone you love be in the big dance, having someone you hate at least keeps you interested.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
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11 comments:
I couldn't agree more.
I'd recommend taking a page out of KSK's playbook and adding a warning at the end:
"if you start a political flame war i'll feed you to Tommy Thompson."
That's not a bad idea. Seriously, I hope we can all just let this go as what it was: a comparison of how dislike and hatred can be a motivation to pay attention. If you are a Romney/Clinton lover, then so be it. I'm sorry if I made fun of your golfing buddy.
To anyone out there inclined to rant politcs: if you start a political flame war, I'll feed you to JC.
How's that?
I think I'm gonna run my ex through a wood chipper, a la "Fargo".
I don't know why people hate Hillary so much. I don't like her by any means (her debate performances are sickening the way she eludes tough questions) or Romney for that matter. He's a bigger fraud than Tony Dungy.
I'm a self-proclaimed flaming moderate. I'm on both sides of the isle on a number of different issues.
Foreign policy......wait a minute. Was this a trap?
I don't wanna talk politics - we have a big game around the corner.
A man wiser than me (and there aren't many) once said "The affairs of state must take precedent over the affairs of state".
1. Wish the Colts were in the Super Bowl: Check.
2. Hate the Patriots: Check.
3. Hate Romney and Clinton: Check.
4. Voting "en blanco." Doesn't that mean "in white"? Which, in theory, this could be the first year we could vote something other than "in white?"
5. Uninspired by all other candidates: check.
I am a conservative, and as such, I supported Fred Thompson. I didn't think he would win, especially given the fact that he had to dragged into the race by petition. He just didn't have enough fire/enthusiasm, whatever.
I think that your statement that you would be happy with either Obama OR McCain speaks more to the liberality of McCain, than it does to anything else. I will not support McCain, Romney, or either of the Democrats. Huckabee doesn't excite me, but as I say in my blog, my only option now is to vote for the "least worst" candidate. In my mind this is Mike Huckabee.
If Huckabee doesn't become President, I will be disappointed. Not for HIS sake, but because that means one of those other jokers got in.
Kind of like, I hope the Giants win the Super Bowl, not because I'm a Giants fan, but because I am an anti-Patriot fan.
Voting "en blanco" means to cast a blank ballot.
I have little use for the conservative/liberal tags. Most liberals would probably tag me as a raging conservative. Most conservatives think I'm a bleeding heart liberal. Welcome to my post-modern morass. I'm not crazy; everyone else is.
DZ:
I'm with you baby.
The middle is where it's at.
One thing I'm VERY concerned about it the appointment of another right-wing nut-job Supreme Court Justice.
Actually.....the Supreme Court in general sucks.
Kick it back to the states. We all have our own flavor.
"I don't know why people hate Hillary so much."
Well, as a chick, I range from pained to amused that she keeps claiming "riding her (philandering) husband's coattails" is some major achievement "for women". Kind of like Goatboy riding his O-line and Randy Moss to "best QB ever" when we all know if he played for the Texans it would be a much different story. And just like Goatboy, the pain results less from the claim, which is laughable, but from the masses of morons who so fervently believe a self-aggrandizing lie.
There, I related it to football.
I'm amused as hell by the Hillary-vs-Obama fights, though. Ideologically, they're identical.
Picky,
Reminds me of the classic vegetarian line: I am not a vegetarian because I love animals so much. I just I HATE plants!
Not to get into political specifics (disclosure: I'm center-left), but if you hew to the middle you risk being left out of contributing your voice. (wow, that was bad grammar)
Example: as a slightly more centrist college grad in NYC in the 80s I wanted to register as an IND, but then thought, all the local elections go to the Dems and THOSE races are won in the primaries where INDs cannot vote (like crowning the AFC champ the SB winner), so I registered as a Dem so I could pick my mayor 6 months before the actual elections.
It steps on our inner idealism, but it's pragmatic and gets closer to the one-person/one-vote concept. While I applauded friends who voted for Perot (I think my eventual wife did twice!), I also had to ask them if they didn't feel their vote was wasted....
I'm not a moderate by choice; I'm a moderate by lack of being anything else. My positions are quite firm, but they happen to fall on the extreme side of both spectrums. I'm a conservative on certain social issues, but I'm waaaaay left on wealth, poverty, taxes and war. This basically leaves me out of the system as neither side wants me, and I don't want them. Thus it take candidates that I hate to inspire me enough to care a little.
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