When Politcs Became Football

I'm not sure when it happened.  It's been a process that took several years, but in 2010 it became obvious - politics has become much less about how to run our government for the benefit of society than it is a football style game.The problem is that in national politics, there is much more at stake that the egos of the players and the feelings of the fans.

What do I mean?  In football, the offense does everything it can to advance toward it's goal, while the defense does everything it can get away with to obstruct the offense from what it wants to do.   Both parties do it, but the Republicans have excelled in making it more about the game than about the interests of the country.  A football team "playing dirty" will use head butts, face mask grabbing and other illegal moves when they think the refs won't see it to stop.  The Republicans will use distortions and outright lies (remember "Death Panels") to discredit Barak Obama.

Senator Mitch McConnell is pretty transparent about this, admitting that his primary goal is to make Obama a one-term president.




It is conventional political wisdom that strong economies are good for incumbent presidents seeking re-elections, and that weak economies favor the challenger.  Indeed, sitting presidents tend to be blamed in many voters' minds for anything bad happening where they caused it or not, just as they tend to be credited for anything good that is happening.  

For McConnell, a continued weak economy would serve his goal of blocking a second Obama term, while a strong economic recovery would undermine his objective.   That is why Republicans don't want health care reform and don't want economic stimulus packages, and will oppose anything that will make Obama look good if it passes.   They don't even really care about the deficit and the recent income-tax cut extension deal (which both cuts revenues and increases spending) proves.   If fact, they're all for increasing the deficit, just so they can blame it on Obama!