As a kid, even through to adulthood, I played and followed sports. Some of my earliest childhood memories were my Dad, my brothers, and me, watching or playing sports. The concept of ‘teams’ was ingrained into my brain from a very early age. But the concept of ‘team’ can be carried to an illogical extreme. Let’s dig.
I grew up in the Detroit, Michigan area. Naturally, I became a fan of the pro sports franchises there: the MLB Tigers, NFL Lions, NBA Pistons, and NHL Red Wings. Win or lose (losing was frequent during those years), I pulled for those teams with everything I had. Many hours of sleep were lost after losing a ‘big game.’ While the players changed frequently–adds via drafts or trades, subtractions via trades or retirements–I cheered for the TEAMS. A beloved Detroit player became a despised scoundrel when traded to another team. Formerly hated players became ‘our guy’ when traded to our team. During the 1980s, Bill Laimbeer played for the Pistons. He was arguably the most hated player in the NBA. He was a professional irritant, doing everything he could to get the other guys off their games—pushing, shoving, elbowing, whatever it took to win. Yet he was a huge fan favorite locally. He may be a ‘goon’, but he was OUR goon! Step over the rules line? It was OK, as long as it was to OUR benefit!
This same dynamic is as true in politics as it is in sports. As early as 1796, none other than George Washington warned of the dangers of partisanship and political parties, in general. He worried that allegiance to party would trump allegiance to country. A few hundred years later, and here we are. Policies and bills are voted on based upon which party brings an issue forward. Even bills that are obviously to the benefit of the entire country are voted along straight party lines. The same is true for bills that only benefit ‘Red’ or ‘Blue’ States. Washington was right.
Democrats see the Republicans as evil, and vice versa. More to the point, Democrats have an uncanny ability to overlook or downplay anything bad or even illegal done by any of their party—all while vilifying the exact same behavior in Republicans! Republicans seem to have the same attitudes, but not to the same extent as their opponents. GOP members are urged by their party to resign when caught doing foul things (for the most part). Democrats NEVER give in to such ideas.
Democrats now have a stoke-victim Senator, who cannot communicate a cogent thought—yet he is heralded as a star politician. They have a President that shares the same level of communication skills—little to none. Numerous examples exist of Biden going the wrong way, shaking the hand of no one, getting the names and places wrong in prepared speeches, etc. Biden has been caught ‘stretching the truth’—lying—for his entire career. Yet he is THEIR GUY. They have a smattering of House members who have lied for years about former President Donald Trump’s ‘collusion’ with Russia—even while KNOWING the entire story was a scheme concocted out of thin air by Hillary Clinton and her campaign (internal memos and emails recently made public clearly show this, but legends are hard to kill). And yet, there appears to be substantial evidence, and whistleblowers, that President Joe Biden, as Vice President, was deeply involved in a ‘pay to play’ influence peddling scheme, worked thru his son Hunter. The Biden family has been paid literally millions of dollars from China and the Ukraine, for Joe’s influence. This entire scandal is nearly ignored by the media. Why? Because the media is on the same TEAM as the Bidens.
Consider the current news regarding politician’s handling of governmental documents. While former President Trump was negotiating with the National Archives regarding documents Trump kept at his Florida home after he left office, he got INDICTED for the crime of mishandling those documents—all the while, as President, he had the express ability to declassify any document he chose to! Meanwhile, Biden, as Vice President, kept hundreds of documents in his Delaware garage—note, that as VP, he had NO ABILITY to declassify anything—yet the media treats this situation as non-serious as someone misplacing their car keys. Again, one TEAM is deadly wrong, the other, completely right, even of the same (or worse) actions.
When Trump was President, the media kept a steady drumbeat of how Trump was ‘damaging our Democracy.’ Yet none of the talking heads could point to a specific action Trump did that exceeded the role of the Presidency. None of Trump’s Executive Orders were challenged by the Supreme Court, the last line of defense for unconstitutional measures. The media HATED Trump’s nominees for that Supreme Court, regardless of those nominee’s qualifications, even though that is completely how the process is supposed to work, with the ‘advice and consent’ of the Senate. No apparent democracy damage there.
Now contrast the media reaction to the Biden Administration. Oh boy. Biden’s Executive Orders, from energy policy to border enforcement, to student loan ‘forgiveness’, have attempted to create brand new laws, not clarifying those passed by Congress. The Supreme Court recently struck down that student loan issue as unconstitutional. Biden’s Administration has attempted to Federalize election laws, threatened to add more members to the Supreme Court, spend TRILLIONS of tax dollars on reducing our carbon footprint, and impose ‘Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion’ into our military. None of those policies are within the role of the President. Finally, who appears to be using the Federal government to suppress their political enemies? So, who exactly is ‘damaging our Democracy’? According to the media, not their team.
Unfortunately for Conservative citizens, the opposing team has some heavyweight members: Academia (from K-12 through secondary education), Hollywood, music, news media, and several of the social media companies, are all on the Liberal side. They control The Narrative, and anything that negates that Narrative will be ignored, downplayed, or ‘debunked.’ Note that no evidence is required for the debunking—if the media says so, that appears to be enough. The Republicans have most religious entities on their team, along with a few rogue media members (see: Tucker Carlson, Elon Musk). One could make a strong argument of ‘Good vs Evil’, but very few would actually hear that argument, since it would be stated by the wrong team.
Thank you for taking the time to read my article! Feel free to add comments (good or bad) in the box below. In addition, there is a link at the bottom of the article to view other items I’ve written at Global Liberty Media. Enjoy!
