Oh, Canada!
Who is so disgusted with the outcome of the 2004 election that they are planning to move to Canada? Anybody? Maybe not….
Odd that all these “reports” of mass migration seem to originate from one generalized source– conservative commentators and columnists– intent on mocking the left as a bunch of sore losers. There certainly are some sore losers on the left side of the political fence, or the blue side of the “Color Curtain” as we are beginning to think of it. But at least in terms of publicity, they are far outweighed by bad winners on the right.
Partly, we’re sure, this is politics as usual. The Left has some very good reasons to question the validity of the election results in many jurisdictions, and they’ve been given ample reasons to suspect deliberate fraud on the part of the Right. And all of the bad sportsmanship exhibited by the winners does follow a pattern. Last we heard, Karl Rove has not hung up the “Mission Accomplished” banner and gone home. There’s every indication he’s still issuing “talking points.”
Or is this just another symptom of the death of “sportsmanship,” which was such a highly prized socializing value in the last century? In today’s world of road-rage, soccer riots (we’re talking kids’ soccer games in the US here!) and other abusive behavior by and toward sports fans, being a “good sport” about something evidently means you’re weak.
Professional sport is a good case in point. It’s neither Professional, nor sport, simply spectacle. Lately, “Professional” means you get paid, and sport means “entertainment.” In the NFL, relatively recently, they had to introduce a rule to prohibit “taunting.” How professional is that? Maybe we need a similar rule in politics… which really isn’t all that different from “professional sports.” The principle of panem et circenses (bread and circuses) to distract a population from real issues goes back to the Roman Empire (the phrase is attributed to Juvanal). Question for Mr. Rove: We love the circuses, dude. Where’s the bread?
Usually all that is required to see through political spin is a little common sense. If you were so disgusted with politics in America, would you move to Canada? Canada?? Hardly! The few dollars left in your nest egg will allow you to live like a king in Mexico or some other Third World (see “Fun With Words” 11/10/04).
Not ready to retire? Think of it as outsourcing yourself to where the jobs are… hint: it’s not Canada!
–SG
What do you think? Please enter a comment below.