Brett Venable
"Outlawing guns outlaws the
American Citizen.
Regulating guns regulates the American
Citizen.
Controlling guns... controls, the
American Citizen."
America’s
Game
Brett Venable
11/03/10
What is America’s game? Is it baseball’s October, with the
Giants defeating the Texans in five games to take their first title since 1954?
Is it football’s surprising 5-2 Chiefs, leading the AFC West? No and no.
America’s game is Pat Toomey coming from behind to hold the only contestable
Republican Senate seat. It’s Mark Kirk doing the same to take Obama’s former
Senate seat. It’s the potential for the biggest shift in House seats since the
Roosevelt election in 1932. America’s game, is politics.
It’s
hard to type with crossed fingers. Yes, I’m still watching the California
Senate race, hoping Barbara Boxer’s lead will trip on something. My hands are
frozen, my nose is numb, the temperature continues to drop out here, and yet
I’m glued to the screen, eagerly awaiting the next update, hoping the colors
will change in my favor. This stuff is better than football, baseball, maybe
even better than the stuff California just decided not to make legal.
Fox
News gets to play ESPN for a night when this once-every-two-years sporting
event occurs, and they take very good cues from their sports broadcasting
partners. They play into the whole sports-politics notion with their scorekeeping
of individual elections, graphs and stats, ever-present Balance of Power meter,
and constant commentary by contributors and analysts. Whatever it is, it
catches on.
One
thing remains clear throughout a night of millions of counted votes and hundreds
of decided federal offices; politics certainly satisfies every requirement to
be considered a sport. We see it played out during the “regular season”, when
bills are proposed and voted on, public discussions and discourse is held, and
controversies emerge and fade. The same as with any sport, leaders emerge for
each side, making decisions and swaying opinions. We even sometimes see players
getting traded to other teams (Crist ’cough’ ‘cough’). Everything culminates in
the post-season midterms, and the championship presidential election years. All
that’s left is for our congressmen to swap out their suits for uniforms, and
their earmarks and appropriations for advertising deals. Okay, maybe too much,
but you get the point. The sport of politics is alive and well, and I’ll be
damned if it ain’t fun at least once every two years.
I’m
Brett Venable, and I approve this message.
Home Email Brett
Previous Articles
All Articles Available From Archives Page