Written by: Scott Rasmussen
I spent most of my early life in and around the Jersey Shore. Because of our location, we had a mix of New York Giants fans and Philadelphia Eagles fans. From my perspective, the Giants were the good guys and the only thing worse than the Eagles were the Dallas Cowboys.
Sometimes, angelic Giants fans would end up watching a game in a sports bar with those evil Eagles fans. In those surreal moments, it felt like the Eagles fans weren’t even watching the same game. I was sometimes shocked when they complained about a ref’s call that was obviously right and clear cut. And I was even more shocked when the Eagles’ fans couldn’t acknowledge the blatant unfairness of a call that went against my team.
That’s the way most political activists watch the sport of politics. No matter which team they’re on, and no matter which refs we’re talking about, political fans can only see how unfairly their own team is treated.
In this political season, roughly nine out of ten Harris supporters think she is likely to win. And nine out of then Trump supporters think the same of their candidate. Just like the fans at a sports bar, the fans of the two political teams are watching entirely different games.
A great example of this was the recent Trump-Harris debate. When Harris was asked about her flip-flops and didn’t offer any explanation, her fans noted how deftly she handled the question. However, Trump fans were outraged at the bias and wanted to know why the moderators didn’t follow up with her as they had with Trump.
When all was said and done, the Harris fans saw a debate where she was clearly the better choice and the referees (finally) fact checked Donald Trump and held him accountable. Trump fans saw a 3-on-1 debate with the moderators issuing false statements to challenge Trump and help Harris.
This, of course, isn’t the way that political reporters talk about the debate in their pre-and-post game shows. They pretend it’s a discussion about ideas and agendas that could alter the course of the election. But that ignores another lesson from the sports bar theory of politics.
Inside the sports bar, everybody is wrapped up in the big game. On every play, some people cheer while others boo. It’s hard to remember that there are a lot more people having dinner at home or eating at some other restaurant. They barely remember the game is on.
People caught up in the political game forget that the vast majority of Americans rarely talk about politics. During normal times, only about 8% of voters talk politics daily. Even now, in the heat of the election season, only about 16% talk politics that much. The rest are aware that the game is going on but it’s not the central focus of their lives.
When all is said and done, however, there is one important difference between football fans at a sports bar and political fans in the election obsessed bubble. No matter how loudly they cheer or argue their cause, football fans can never really impact the outcome of a game.
But, political fans could theoretically help their team win. The problem is that they don’t know how to talk to anyone who’s not caught up in the sports bar hype.
