{"id":2795,"date":"2008-01-30T08:54:00","date_gmt":"2008-01-30T14:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/01\/flopping-a-lame-losing-strategy-in-america\/"},"modified":"2009-08-22T14:10:05","modified_gmt":"2009-08-22T20:10:05","slug":"flopping-a-lame-losing-strategy-in-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/01\/flopping-a-lame-losing-strategy-in-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Flopping: a lame, losing strategy in America"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>By Carter Bundy<\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Ever wonder why World Cup soccer hasn\u2019t caught on in America<\/st1:country-region><\/st1:place> like it has in the rest of the world? Or why legions of Americans despise Duke basketball? There are plenty of reasons for both, but what they have in common is that Americans can\u2019t stand flopping.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The Italian Azzurri \u2013 World Cup champs \u2013 are horrible to watch. Sure, they\u2019re brilliantly talented players, but if someone breathes on them from 10 yards away, they go into something slightly resembling a serious seizure.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Likewise, the keystone of Duke\u2019s 2001 title run was Shane Battier, a guy so prone to exaggerating contact that he\u2019s disparagingly known to hoops fans across the country as \u201cFloppier.\u201d <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

What\u2019s that got to do with politics? Everything, of late. There are examples from all the Democratic campaigns, so to be fair here is one from each of the two frontrunners.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Reagan the (scary) transformer<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

When Barack Obama<\/a> said Ronald Reagan<\/a> was a transformational figure, he was merely stating what every reader of this blog already knows. In the entire 20th Century, there were really only two presidents who changed the very nature of how we think about government. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

FDR<\/a> showed how well-run programs can help people help themselves and help the overall economy.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Reagan took the novel approach that the organization he headed was incapable of good. His disdain for government, disinterest in making it work and disregard for the people it\u2019s designed to help laid the foundation for the current administration\u2019s incompetence in everything from budgets to bids to Katrina.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Saying Reagan was transformative doesn\u2019t mean you like him. I think his influence is still enormous, and I\u2019m certainly not a fan. When Barack said it, he made sense.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

But Hillary Clinton<\/a> supporters (and John Edwards\u2019<\/a>) were incredulous. They acted as though Barack had just committed some cardinal sin by saying something everyone knew was true. They tried to milk their \u201coutrage\u201d for political gain. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Kinda like Floppier getting grazed by an opposing power forward and throwing himself ten feet back to get the charge call. Ick.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Race matters<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The Obama campaign and its supporters have done much the same on the race issue. Just the other day, I got a nasty e-mail accusing the Clintons of being racist because Bill Clinton<\/a> noted, accurately, that Jesse Jackson<\/a> had carried South Carolina twice, riding to wins on massive support from the state\u2019s huge African American turnout. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Of course, Clinton went out of his way to say that Barack ran a great campaign in South Carolina and had run great campaigns elsewhere (including lily white states), too.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The Jackson<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> wins are relevant, and not because raising them makes Barack the \u201cblack\u201d candidate. It does nothing of the sort. Obama\u2019s had good Anglo support in places like Iowa<\/st1:state> and even New Hampshire<\/st1:state><\/st1:place>. But in South Carolina<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>, almost 80 percent of African Americans voted for Barack, while only 25 percent or so of Anglos did.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

It\u2019s relevant because the South Carolina<\/st1:state> Democratic primary has been and continues to be an outlier (as Florida<\/st1:state><\/st1:place> just showed). Race matters in the Palmetto<\/st1:placename> State<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place>, and that\u2019s relevant to analyzing what the results mean.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

But Obama supporters were incredulous. They acted as though Bill had just committed some cardinal sin by saying something everyone knew was true. They tried to milk their \u201coutrage\u201d for political gain. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t seen one of the Azzurri writhing on the ground grabbing a shin for five minutes waiting for a penalty kick call (and then miraculously jumping up after some of that \u201cJesus-in-a-can\u201d spray)\u2026 well, now you have. Yuck.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Focus on the big things, Democrats<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not so much the rhetoric of the two campaigns that needs to be toned down, it\u2019s the apoplectic reaction by activists that needs to end.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

When Hillary and her supporters waste time even hinting that Barack is a Reagan fan, or Barack and his supporters waste time even hinting that the Clintons<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> are racists, Americans see diving. They see flopping. They see artifice and phoniness that drives them away from the event.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The activist hysteria is reminiscent of the guy who moaned incessantly at Paul Wellstone\u2019s<\/a> funeral, pleading that Republicans should just quit running against Dems as a tribute to Wellstone.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Wellstone was a tough, authentic liberal. As such, he\u2019d have never made that request. He and most of his supporters got up in front of people, made a strong case for Paul and his policies and didn\u2019t obsess on statements from the other side. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Good, tough liberals like Wellstone know there are too many real battles and don\u2019t focus on little slights, real or imagined. Not just because it\u2019s a waste of time and energy, but also because voters think it\u2019s lame.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Voters of all stripes know it won\u2019t get any easier when the Dems face the Rove<\/a> machine this summer, and it\u2019s even harder when you lead the free world. With American voters, whining never wins.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The remaining Democratic candidates are as talented as the Azzurri and more genuine than Duke hoopsters. Let\u2019s start acting like it, lose the flopping, and show Americans we\u2019re tough enough to run the show.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Bundy is the political and legislative director for AFSCME<\/a> in New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>. The opinions in his column are personal and do not necessarily reflect any official AFSCME position. You can learn more about him by clicking here<\/a>. Contact him at carterbundy@yahoo.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Carter Bundy Ever wonder why World Cup soccer hasn\u2019t caught on in America like it has in the rest of the world? Or why legions of Americans despise Duke basketball? There are plenty of reasons for both, but what they have in common is that Americans can\u2019t stand flopping. The Italian Azzurri \u2013 World […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bundy-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2795\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}