Harry Targ
Narratives about American politics often use
football metaphors. Conflicts over political issues are understood in terms of
wins and losses, long passes, brilliant catches, quarterback sacks, and the
performance of a handful of superstars. As I write this, I recall how much I
hate sports metaphors and more generally the narcotizing effects of sports on
American life. But before I close the book on our sports addiction, I think of
an aspect of the football metaphor that helps clarify the struggles over issues
of war and peace and shutting down government or saving its dwindling public
functions.
I watched one-half of two football games last
Sunday. Most of the games were tedious with two teams of players slogging back
and forth along the 100 yard field. Fans cheered as their team moved the ball
forward or stopped the opposing team from advancing the football. They were
silenced when the opposing team made gains. On reflection, the flow of a team’s
movement of the ball toward the goal
line to score a touchdown or to be forced back and be scored upon by the other
team, sounds a lot like politics (To be sure, politics is not a game).
Take the case of United States foreign policy in the
Middle East and the Persian Gulf. The Bush administration launched two wars in
the 21st century with disastrous consequences. The Obama Administration
orchestrated a war on Libya and continues “no boots on the ground” drone
strikes against targets in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and elsewhere.
Peace forces have been forced back toward their own goal line multiple times
since the dawn of the new century.
But the “home team” has been marshaling its
strength. Team America is tired of war. President Obama launched a campaign last
summer to get support for air strikes against the Assad regime in Syria. As
Sheldon Richman pointed out on September 13, 2013 (Reason.com), “The people
happened. Public-opinion polls showed at once that most of us do not want Obama
to commit an act of war against Syria. Furthermore, the people inundated
Congress with calls and emails.”
More importantly, peace activists marched against
war in cities and towns around the country. In Lafayette, Indiana, a peace
march against air strikes in Syria was even praised by the district’s Tea Party
Congressman. Of course, opposition at home was paralleled by emerging global
powers, particularly China and Russia. Metaphorically, the Peace Team moved the
ball across the field into the War Team’s territory.
Also, domestically, Americans have expressed their
outrage at the shutdown of government in October and threats of financial
default to follow. After weeks of debate, a Congressional compromise was
reached reopening government and preventing a government default. The
settlements of October 17, 2013 only moved the crises about government funding
to be fought another day. But workers returned to provide vital services to the
American people and the danger of the United States government refusing to
honor its debts was put on hold.
Media narratives portrayed the conflicts over the shutdown
and potential default as resulting from struggles between President Obama;
Harry Reid, Majority Leader in the Senate; John Boehner, Speaker of the House;
and renegade politicians such as Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who with substantial
Tea Party support, preferred bringing government to a halt. Referring back to
the football narrative, two weeks of media coverage portrayed Obama Team
Compromise versus Tea Party Team Government Shutdown as engaged in back and
forth movement across the fifty yard line. Ultimately the temporary compromise
was reached but the game continues.
Each day’s coverage of the inside the beltway game included
reference to polling data. Particular attention was given to presumptions about
rightwing Tea Party supporters in conservative Congressional districts. The Tea
Party was framed as the “popular” force--at least in the strongly Republican
Congressional Districts-- that would determine the outcome of the current
struggle while pointing out that polls reflected overall disapproval of
Republican obstructionism in the House of Representatives.
A CNN poll released October 21, gives a more probing
assessment of public disapproval of the gridiron conflict in Washington. Respondents evidenced declining confidence in
the President’s ability to “deal with the major issues facing the country
today” from a high of 50 percent in December, 2011 to 44 percent in October,
2013. Confidence in Congressional Republicans, while low, was the same at both
data points, at 31 percent. Now only 12 percent of those polled approve of the
“way Congress is handling its job.” Fifty percent of respondents in January,
2011 thought it was “good for the country” to have Republicans in control of
the House, only 38 percent hold that view today.
In addition to polling data that clearly shows
growing cynicism about government and particular outrage at Republican
obstructionists and the Tea Party faction, protests against the government
shutdown and possible default occurred all across the country. Protestors
included furloughed federal workers, veterans, federal regulators, and citizens
outraged that the normal functions of government were not being performed
because of rightwing obstructionism. Referring to the Republican’s effort to
use the blockage of the federal budget as a tool to demand the reversal of the
new Affordable Care Act, which passed in 2010, Reverend Jesse Jackson called
for national protests against the government shutdown:
We
march to protest the moral outrage of shutting down the Federal Government
because it denies over 800,000 federal workers their jobs and 312 million
American citizens needed services. (Rainbow PUSH
Coalition, October 7, 2013).
The temporary compromises reached on October 17,
2013 moved the ball across the fifty yard line toward restoring government even
though the agreements are temporary.
The football metaphor suggests that the contest
entails a lengthy struggle over virtually every issue of war and peace and
limited versus positive government. Victories are temporary and the forces for peace
and positive government need to keep their offenses mobilized and their
defenses strong. But, contrary to the football metaphor, as the Syrian and
government debt issues suggest, short-term victories were not achieved by a few
“star” players but by the expressions and actions of hundreds of thousands
of supporters of peace and economic
justice.
