I’ve always been a Varsity Cheerleader for Voting; it’s a civic duty and a privilege that many in this world are denied. It’s a right. It’s an obligation. It’s your chance to have a voice in your governance.
That said – for years this cheerleader has been feeling like turning in her pompoms because y’all? Are making this really hard.
There’s not a time in recent memory where I can recall heading to the polls with a pep in my step, and certainly not with cheer in my heart, because, for at least the past decade-and-some-“change” (ahem), neither party has produced candidates for major offices that I’ve been excited to vote for.
Now when I say “excited,” don’t misunderstand – both major political parties have been going hard to get us excited by the Cult of Personality. Big personas, fiery speeches, headline-grabbing “hot takes” that punch us in the gut and hit us in “the feels”? Yeah, the Republicans and Democrats are delivering on that Must-See-TV, and putting on quite the show.
And it’s a popular one. With mass appeal. Just see the headlines in recent years about record numbers of voters getting out to the polls.
That increased turnout should have this Varsity Cheerleader for Voting doing herkies down the field.
But I’m not.
Increasingly, I’m not even tuning in to the show.
That shit doesn’t excite me.
Because the leadership of this country – the actions and directions we take to decide our future? – shouldn’t be for show at all (and it certainly shouldn’t be this shitshow). Politics should be a Super Bowl Showdown of A-Game ideas. It should be the two parties fielding their best teams, displaying discipline, strategy, skills, and game plans for the country, with the best team taking home the trophy.
I’d cheer for that.
But that’s not where we’re at.
Instead, record spending (surely there are better uses for those $ billions we’ve poured into political campaigns?) has bought us non-stop coverage and relentless rah-rah rallies for which the message is always some iteration of: “Vote for us because our opponent is a [insert negative catch-all insult here] who will hurt every identity politics group you care about and ruin America!”
Fear mongering + Spectacle + Highly-Developed-Audience-Targeting-Tools-Prioritizing-Soundbites-Over-Substance = more voters, I guess.
Fumble.
The fact that those last strategic approaches could literally be referring to every campaign for a high profile office in this country should alarm you. For two reasons:
1 This isn’t the Battle of The Best. It’s the Scare-‘Em-To-The-Polls Super Bowl, and, through social media, the news, commercials, cold calls, phone alerts etc., we’ve all got tickets. Voter turnout in recent elections shows the strategy is working. Which guarantees us more of the same.
2. More importantly, this approach, this “Vote for me because the other guy is a Commie Socialist Fascist Nazi Authoritarian Lib Snowflake Literal Hitler” – offers no actual plan for governance. It offers no measurable ways forward on meaningful legislation that will positively impact constituents; it just says “you’re a morally repugnant person if you vote for the other team, oh and also you’ve doomed this country to the spiraling abyss.”
Folks, that’s just slight-of-hand, Give-‘Em-A-Boogeyman-‘Cuz-We’ve-Got-No-Solid-Implementable-Plans hackery. It’s a poorly performed pass fake that we should all see. And boo.
And here this cheerleader thought this was supposed to be the Super Bowl? A showdown between the best of the best?
Why are we still showing up for this mess?
I’ve been all in with football analogies so far, but I’d like to take you on a little sports detour… To “Rocky IV”. Y’all ever seen “Rocky IV”? It’s critically panned, but, outside of the initial “Rocky” installment, it’s my favorite one.
Shrug.
I like what it has to say.
I could write a graduate thesis on how the character of Rocky is representative of the values and entity of The United States (Don’t worry. I’m not gunna.), but of all the installments in the series, I think “Rocky IV” gives both the strongest positive representation of American values while also offering the best critique.
See, in it, Rocky’s mentor, Apollo Creed, is set to fight The Russian (played by mechanical engineer and chemist Dolph Lundgren). Apollo is arrogant about his “best boxer” status, and knows that the fans love flash and spectacle… so he dances into the ring wearing a bombastic Stars-and-Stripes-themed ensemble, complete with top hat, to James Brown’s iconic “Living In America.”
And – spoiler alert for a 30+ year old movie – he loses.
Nah, fam. He dies.
I can’t watch the scene. I cry just thinking about it.
And the same can be said about our current state of politics.
Because we are Apollo. We are also the fans. And we cannot afford to make the same “spectac”ular mistakes. We cannot afford the same fate.
I don’t want our arrogance, our unpreparedness, our Cult of Personality and reliance on spectacle over substance, to have us losing to The Russians. Or the Chinese. Or anyone else for that matter. I don’t want us to fall to any enemies, foreign or domestic.
Or hubris.
I don’t want us to fall to hubris.
So what do I want? Who would I cheer for?
Rocky.
I want Rocky.
The next time I go to the polls, I want to check a box for a candidate who foregoes the flash in favor of hard work. I want a candidate who studies his sport to build technical and tactical excellence, who knows his strengths and builds upon them, who knows his weaknesses and works on them, and who enters the ring with consternation because s/he knows the gravity of the challenges at hand.
But Rocky is a big ask.
Most aren’t up to that task.
So at this point, this tired cheerleader would literally get excited for competence.
I want Rocky, but I’ll cheer for any competent wo/man who sidesteps the Cult of Personality and instead offers work ethic, expertise, and an actual plan.
Can I get three cheers for competence?
“Hip! Hip! Hooray!” for the boring relief that comes with measurable goals and consistency.
“Hear! Hear!” for the peace of mind that comes with expertise.
“Cheer! Cheer!” through the megaphone (and from the diaphragm) for leadership that is quiet, congenial, collaborative, and substantive.
I’ve always been a Varsity Cheerleader for Voting, but it’s time we demand that our teams field players worth a pompom.
