Football vs. the Convention

July 31, Detroit

About the only thing more pointless than the NFL Preseason was the Republican Convention that followed it on ABC tonight. More interesting was Dennis Miller's debut in the broadcast booth. At least ABC had the courtesy not to have the two competing with each other.

It should be noted that both were more boring than CBS' crashingly dull Big Brother.

I thought the Dennis Miller of Monday night football showed some promise. The trio was at its best when former quarterback Dan Fouts instructed Miller on the game and the two interacted with Michaels. The awkward silences came when Miller tossed out some one-liners at replays. In all, Miller was Miller, and Preseason football was Preseason football.

The convention was like a convention, an infomercial for the GOP.

And perhaps they go together. Consider these similarities from the convention and tonight's football broadcast. Did anyone notice Laura Bush's Jimmy Johnson hairdo? Or the way when Al Michaels introduced Dennis Miller; Miller genuflected to blue-collar football fan the way George W. Bush genuflects to radical right every chance he gets. And there was my favorite moment: when Michaels interviewed Peter Jennings from the convention floor during halftime.

Sports and politics seem to intersect constantly. And it's not just that athletes like Steve Largent and J.C. Watts, who own congressional seats, and Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne, who is running for one.

But more than ever, politics seems just like a game.

There are two teams, the Democrats and the Republicans, and they play to score points and win elections. The point is that all of this is a game. The teams, sorry parties, play to beat each other. The damaging thing is that this is all couched in rhetoric about helping our children and making the country better for everyone. It is wrong to couch political self-service in the language of hope, renewal and our children. If a sport like boxing wants to be devoid of meaning that's one thing. But politics is supposed to be about real issues.

But the GOP convention is so apolitical this year. After Laura Bush spoke tonight, one of the networks pointed a camera on one of her friends and subjected us to stories about what she was like when she was pregnant. Another channel aired an interview where Mrs. Bush refused to answer any questions about her views on abortion. And that would be fine, except she was speaking at a political convention, where issues should be important. It only proved that Laura Bush is not Hillary Clinton, not that anyone would confuse the two.

The only person to reveal his true ideology tonight was Colin Powell, one of the few people in the hall who supports affirmative action and abortion rights. Political conventions like these preseason football games have no meaning. I want to look at politics as the exchange and discussion of ideas. But the mainstream GOP is glossing over its true ideology in Philadelphia. I expect the Democrats will hide from their ideology in Los Angeles, as well.

The problem here is that I do feel like the election matters. I see the Republican agenda and feel as though Bush's ideas will hurt the country. Social Security will suffer as will everyone who finds themselves in the lowest 95 percentile in the country's economy. I think that whatever prosperity the country has, real or imagined, will vanish in a Bush economy. I mean, the last three Republican presidents have started and presided over recessions.

But Al Gore doesn't excite me either. It's hard not to look at Decision 2000 as the anti-choice corporate candidate against the pro-choice corporate candidate.

I believe that all elections are popularity contests. But what separates presidential elections from elections for third grade class president should be substance. But substance doesn't sell. I want conventions to be ideological struggles, not scripted love fests. Looks like I'll have to rely on the NFL or the Reform Party for discussions of ideas and struggle.