I love a good analogy. But how do we determine if an analogy is “good”? For me an analogy is good if I’m able to draw a clear picture connecting something I know nothing about to something I know something about. Fair enough. But analogies fall apart and the connection of politics and elections to merely winning or losing a sporting event is a simple line drawing that needs to die.
In politics sports, the losers will get on their bus and drive back to where they came from until the next election game. The winners will obviously be, well, winners and do what winners do, right? Take the ball and go home.
But hold on. If we turn the analogy around and politics are sports, the losing team doesn’t get on a bus. The losing team remains in the dugout, or on the bench. Stadium center might be configured as a tennis court, a baseball diamond, a rugby pitch, a hockey rink. Fans remain in the stands. The stadium continues to operate, concessions are sold and whether we’re interested or not, we all live together through all the games. No one takes the ball and goes home.
And I hope the current cage-match the POTUS is waging against the office of President ends soon even as I recognize there are fans in the stand who came to see exactly that. A cage-match. And that’s hard to take, knowing that there are others who long for this kind of sport.
With Trump’s disclosure of classified information to Russian officials in the Oval Office, I’ve reached the conclusion that the primary havoc and damage he has done and continues to do is to the sureness, the authority, the dignity expected of someone sworn in to playing the position of President of the United States.
And if you happen to live in the red, white, and blue section of the stadium, whether you like the cage matches or not, he’s damaged us all.
Because after all, planet earth, this United States this stadium is home.
