I’ve spent the past week taking a break from politics to revisit Ken Burns’ 1994 documentary "Baseball," which in 11 parts meticulously traces the history of our national pastime from the 1840s to modern times.
Wouldn’t you know, it immediately brought me back to politics, via a quote from political columnist and baseball nut George Will on why the sport had such a hold on the American psyche.
He said, "Baseball suits the character of this democratic nation. Democracy is government by persuasion. That means it requires patience. That means it involves a lot of compromise. Democracy is the slow politics of the half loaf.
"Baseball is the game of the long season," Will said. "In baseball you know going to the ballpark that the chances are you may win but you also may lose. There’s no certainty, no given. You know when a season starts that the best team is going to get beaten a third of the time, the worst team is going to win a third of the time. The argument over that 162 games is winning the middle third."
He concludes, "So it’s a game you can’t like if winning is everything, and democracy is that way, too."
It was a beautiful, insightful metaphor when Will spoke the words nearly 20 years ago.
But it’s striking how much the political environment has changed in those 20 years and how askew the analogy seems today. The differences go to the heart of the current dysfunction and gridlock in our public affairs.
The patience Will spoke of is no longer a virtue in America’s national politics, and the art of persuasion has been lost to cartoonish posturing. Half loaves are for wimps. Compromise is a dirty word. Winning is at any cost.
The concept of the loyal opposition that gave us continuity and stability for most of two centuries as presidential administrations changed from one party to the other seems long gone.
It has become the single-minded goal of the party out of power to tear down the party in power by any means necessary, assuring only that little can get done in addressing our national problems.
The debate is controlled by shrill broadcast personalities and cynical consultants for the partisan extremes who have access to virtually unlimited funding to fill our consciousness with their malevolent messages.
A whipsawed electorate seems incapable of staying any course.
In 2008, voters gave Democrats a virtually unprecedented majority in Congress, then did a complete U-turn two years later and handed the House of Representatives to the Republican tea party. Who knows what we’ll do this year?
If George Will was right that you can’t like democracy and it can’t work if winning is everything, we’re in trouble.
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Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com or blog.volcanicash.net.
