Football and Politics
Introduction
American politics is dominated by two major political parties, the Democrats and the Republicans. In many respects, that is very similar to two football teams competing for the Superbowl trophy.
- Feb. 2017
Background
Some people have a misunderstanding about how politics work. They think the representatives we elected to Congress suppose to sit down and discuss their differences on various policies and come up with legislation that are to benefit the American people.
In reality, they are like two opposing teams on the football field. Each team wants to win. They win by scoring points. Each team must follow a set of rules. When they break the rules, a flag is thrown. The judges decide whether a rule was broken and the penalties apply. The offensive team gets the ball and try to move it towards the goal line. The defensive team puts up blocks to prevent this (within the rules). It is all part of the game.
The rule book is the Constitution and the judges are our Court system. The two teams will use various tactics and strategies to win. The media plays an important role also. They are the game announcers. They will call each play as accurate as possible. Occasionally, they gets it wrong. Ideally, they are suppose to be non-biased. They should be neutral when it comes to showing support for any particular team. However, that is never the case. One side is always the favorite and the other the underdog.
Summary
The football analogy is a pretty good one. Our political process is full of drama and deception and twist and turns but at the end, a winner emerges with the trophy and the loser goes back home to regroup and fight another day. It is the American Way.
