Great minds think alike... I'm not the only one to notice that Americans treat their politics like they do their sports. Today Professor Barnett on the Volokh Conspiracy raised the comparison in a discussion on libertarians and whether it made sense to form their own party:
"Americans view political parties as they do their sports teams. Even Independents tend to root for one party over the other. Libertarians have defined themselves as a different team that looses pitifully--and Americans do not like losers. And when you say 'libertarian' to them, they think you are referring to the Libertarian team. I think this is why many libertarian-inclined citizens deny they libertarians. That is not their team."
A few weeks ago I saw another blogger, Deb, make a similar sports comparison in context of attending a protest at the recent presidential inauguration:
"What I gathered from this exchange was that these students, and maybe a lot more believe that if you lose, you lose. My 'team' didn't win, so I should just get over it and be silent for four years."
I think it's fair to say that the analogy is sound. But it's also unfortunate. Politics should not be a winner-take-all situation. Second-place (and third, and fourth, etc.) still matters.