2008 election: Get in the game

By Bill McCamley

“Politics is the only game for adults.” – Robert Heinlein

On Sunday, the 2008 Summer Olympics ended. On Monday, the real race for the presidency began with the first party convention of the election. The sporting world and the realm of politics share many similarities. But in politics the determination of the future of a community, state, nation or world is made, while in a sporting event no such importance exists. So why do more people seem to care passionately about the outcomes of games than the results of elections?

I love sports. I grew up doing everything from American staples like football, basketball and baseball to springboard diving (that didn’t last long; Greg Luganis I’m not). In high school I played tennis and roller hockey and in college I was the backup goalkeeper for the NMSU Men’s Soccer team for one season. I even got 30 minutes in a game against Northern Arizona (when we were already up 3-0). I have also coached, managing a youth roller hockey team for two years. I grew up cheering for the Washington Redskins (a generally good football team) and the Capitals (a generally not so good hockey team), and stick with them through thick and thin. I still cry when I see the clip of Derek Redmond hobbling towards the finish with his father in the 1992 Barcelona Games after pulling a hamstring.

As someone who has a history in politics, I see many parallels to sports. Both are competitive, with people sometimes working their whole lives to get to the top. Both involve a lot of money (The 2008 New York Yankees player payroll is $209.1 Million. Barack Obama has spent $323 Million in his run for the presidency). Both have rabid bases of support for their teams/parties and players/candidates. If you run footage of the conventions and interchange clips with a Duke-North Carolina basketball game, you probably won’t see much difference. There are even examples of athletes who retire and run for office (Bill Bradley, Steve Largent, Jack Kemp, J.C. Watts). There is no evidence, however, of a retired politician ever winning the Super Bowl.

However, though politics has its fans, it seems like more people care more passionately about sports than government. Don’t believe me? 62.5 million people watched the first presidential debate of 2004. A few months later, 86.1 million people watched the Super Bowl. And that was only on one channel and happens every year. The debates were on all of the networks and they only go on every four years. There are fantasy football, baseball and soccer leagues while there is no equivalent in politics. In the case of men, more probably look at a newspaper’s sports page first every day than news about important policies. Though I haven’t done that in a while, I do frequently check the scores on ESPN.com before looking at recent political news, and I am so in to politics that I ran for Congress.

Politics involves more investment and risk

Why is this? Could it be the fact that sports offer a more concrete form of winning and losing than politics? Possibly, as there is almost always an undisputed champion in sports (except in college football; BCS, ShmeeCS. Give me a playoff). When a bill becomes a law, though, after going through a process that may take years it is sometimes hard to see who “won.” What about the fact that kids, especially boys, become fans of sport at early ages, both as fans and players? Maybe, as there are a lot more sporting participants in school than in the Young Republicans or Democrats. But I think the real reason goes deeper. It involves the concept of investment and risk.

When you support a team, you join other fans in generating a sense of something greater than yourself. When you join together to watch a game, or even to see someone wearing your team’s jersey it feels good. I usually end up leaving NMSU volleyball games with no voice and completely exhausted, and I love it. But you know, if my team loses, am I defeated? No. I feel bad for a while, but the next day I go on living. Though some people take it more seriously (both positively and negatively), most feel the same way. You may invest time, energy and some money but you only risk a little disappointment.

In politics you have that same feeling of doing something bigger, but there is risk. When the U.S. government goes to war, a state spends resources on education rather than health care, or a local government allows a casino, there is no waking up in the morning the next day simply feeling good or bad. There are consequences. When you go out and vote for someone who makes these decisions, you share responsibility for the actions they take. This is a heavy burden that everybody shares in a democracy, and maybe some people deep down do not feel comfortable with it.

But as we enter the playoffs of the 2008 elections cycle it is important that we step up and play in this game by participating in the political process. It may be difficult, and we may have to take responsibility for the future of our team, but to be successful as a nation we all have to get in the game.

McCamley is the District 5 Doña Ana County commissioner.