Such similarities, indeed!
While I’m not a big sports fan, I like watching Canadian Football League (CFL). I’m not sure why. I don’t even have a favorite team.
On November 17, the CFL hosted its championship game, the Grey Cup. Winnipeg Blue Bombers were battling the Toronto Argonauts for all the glory. Winnipeg was expected to win.
In the third quarter, Toronto was winning 17–10. Winnipeg quarterback Zach Collaros injured his throwing hand. He went to the locker room to get stitched up. Third-string QB Terry Wilson took over and moved the ball down to the field to score a field goal.
Then Collaros came back. Commentators were questioning whether Collaros would still have “the touch” with stitches in his index finger. It seems they were right. Collaros underthrew his next pass. A Toronto defensive back had an easy interception and ran the ball back for a near touchdown. And that near touchdown got turned into a touchdown.
Now down by two scores in the fourth quarter, Winnipeg had to take more risks. And there were two more interceptions thrown by the broken-fingered Collaros. The game that was exciting and close for the first three quarters became a dominant Toronto win.
The bad football call
Undoubtedly, there were many football fans questioning the decision of Winnipeg head coach Mike O’Shea. Terry Wilson played admirably when he was at the helm. The starting QB was injured — and injured in a body part that makes it difficult to throw footballs.
So Collaros or Wilson? In the heat of the moment, a decision had to be made. Go with the injured star quarterback who got the team to the championship game? Or go with a fairly untested third-stringer in a big game? A difficult decision. A decision that had to be made quickly. In hindsight, the wrong decision was made.
Football coaches are often called to make such decisions. Sometimes they work out. Sometimes not. Even the best coaches do not always make the right calls. Mike O’Shea has taken the Bombers to five straight Grey Cup finals. He must have made many good calls to reach that milestone. He missed this crucial call at this crucial time. His Grey Cup timing was bad.
As much as Winnipeg fans may want to berate O’Shea for his bad QB decision, they will never be called to the sidelines to coach a professional football team and prove they can make better decisions.
The Democratic Party
Like Winnipeg fans berating O’Shea, lots of blame is being passed around as to why the Democrats lost on November 5. Amateur politicians have all sorts of theories for the Harris loss.
I was reading one Medium article about Ms. Harris being too dumb to ever be the president. The writer had all sorts of quips to prove Harris’ lack of intellect for the job. Then five minutes later, I read another Medium article that Harris did not dumb down her message enough to resonate with average voters. So who was right?
Reading other articles, I saw two main camps of thinkers. One camp chastised the Democrats for not painting the fascist nature of the Republicans well enough. The other camp wanted Harris to ignore the Republicans and provide a vision for the USA. So who was right?
In the end, Harris and her team of political advisors came up with a campaign strategy. They put their campaign experience, current information, recent history, and a big pot of money together. Lots of thinking went into this strategy, with the fields of psychology, marketing, and political science providing insights.
I kind of doubt this strategy was concocted quickly and flippantly. From my side of my computer and TV screens, the campaign strategy sounded reasonable. It was probably one of several good strategies. The high-ranking Democrats had to pick one of them.
Like the fans of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, I have my doubts any of the amateur politicians on Medium will be called to advise the Democratic Party for the next election.
So who decides who writes history?
Winning or losing football games is not that important. Not even the players who played in the Grey Cup will have their lives changed that much.
The similarity between Canadian football (and all other sports) and the Democratic Party (and all other parties) is that: (1) even the best plans do not turn the way the planners thought and (2) the practitioners must make on-the-spot decisions that often do not turn out.
The election of Donald Trump is, undoubtedly, going to move the American oligarchy/democratic greyscale closer to the O side. While a few rich people will get richer, many people’s lives will be changed for the worse. We should expect more denial of health insurance claims and more minorities getting beat up by thugs.
There is a lot on the line when society selects its political leaders. Should we really trust a political team with a 33% record? (Think about 2016, 2020, and 2024). Or should we be content with a “good” team that can’t make the right calls in the big game. How long can we keep blaming bad timing? When will we understand that there are systemic flaws that cause the bad timing?
Or maybe we should just build a new democracy.
Published on Medium 2024
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