The politics of fandom

When I moved into my dorm this past August, the first thing I did was begin setting up my Bay Area sports shrine, in order to pay respects to my hometown and favorite teams. Doing anything else prior to this ritual would have felt wrong, as it was only when a San Francisco 49ers flag, a San Jose Sharks rally towel and a San Francisco Giants t-shirt were all proudly hung above my bed that I could finally call my new, dimly lit living space a home.

During the process of expressing my fandom, my roommate from Southern California came over to take a peek at what I was plastering across our walls. He appreciated my enthusiasm, complemented my 49ers flag, but then—in a stern monotone voice—said, “No Giants gear.” Stunned, I turned to him and said, “Don’t tell me you’re a Dodgers fan,” praying for an honest ‘no’ and hoping he was kidding about stripping the walls of my beloved black and orange. To my disgust, my prayers were left unanswered, as my roommate arrogantly nodded his head, happy to hold his ground and defend his Dodger blue. I tried to convince him to think otherwise, but he would not waver—there was absolutely no chance he would let anything San Francisco Giants hang in our room. So I compromised and gave in to his demands, so long as he did not ever mention Los Angeles sports teams in my presence. We shook on it, knowing very well the pact would be broken, as a heated rivalry now existed between us.

Our deal bought us some time but, soon, our fandom transpired into a full-blown battle, with jabs being made at the others teams downfalls at any opportunity. Over time, as the debates got more and more trivial, and we got more and more stubborn, the partisanship that had developed in our tiny living space became more and more prevalent. Soon, dysfunction ran rampant in our room, with disputes over

who would take out the trash or sweep the floor escalating quickly. The lines had been drawn over our disagreement about whether San Francisco or Los Angeles sports were better, and it was beginning to affect the overall functioning of our room.

Sound familiar?

With the government impasse setting in, I have realized that, in the same way my roommate and I cannot agree on Los Angeles versus San Francisco sports or how Yankees and Red Sox fans struggle to coexist, Republicans and Democrats in Congress cannot agree on how to divide up the federal budget. In short, I have found our sports chatter to mirror political debates and have come to the conclusion that Washington has simply become a site for politicians to hash out their ideologies in a way no different than Giants and Dodgers fans claiming superiority at a sports bar.

Whether it is about our teams or our favorite players, sports fans everywhere rarely give in to their opponents. They do not waver from their positions, holding steadily to their belief that they are right and their opponents are wildly misinformed and must have last watched an inning of a major league game in 1996. The debate will last for hours, as both sides continue to hammer their ideas home, with no chance to convince their opponents to change their minds. In fact, it becomes not so much a debate as it is a test of just how much evidence of one’s team’s background one can harness while thinking on his or her feet. Points are spun off in all sorts of ways to emphasize different angles, and much is repeated, with most sides beginning to sound like a broken record by minute three.

The seemingly endless banter that has gone on in Congress over the past few weeks over the budget crisis really is no different. From filibusters to stalemates in voting, the debate over health care has pitted two rival parties against each other, and both are unwilling to compromise. Both hold their ideologies and political initiatives to be what is right for our country, and neither side wants to give up any ground. In the same way that sports fans will never abandon their commitment to their team, Republicans and Democrats are closing off their minds to the other side’s opinion, preventing any compromise from being made. Doing so would be like seeing a Yankees fan wearing a Red Sox cap in public—it just would not happen. The result has been a deadlock, with no end in sight.