Adventures in Entrepreneurship with Jeremy Hanks

365 Days Later…

… Politicians are still politicians (surprise, surprise) and I’m completely disenfranchised about our country’s leaders and the system they’re beholden to.

365 days ago I told the world I’d voted for Barack Obama. I even found a group of like minded people and we all got together election night. We were more hopeful for our country than I remember feeling in a long time. I’ve been reflecting on that and the previous year over the last few days. Here’s what I’ve come up with.

The whole deal reminds me athletics and high school. Picture the quarterback(s) of your high school football team. They were it. Even if the team sucked, even if we lost every game, they still owned the place. They were the quarterback of the football team for Pete’s sake. True, if they win a state championship, they get hoisted on a shoulder and dance with the homecoming queen, but if they loose, are they really any less in control of their limited domain? They still dance with the homecoming queen. But you know what? High school ended. And a tiny few of those quarterback gods who roamed the halls, well they were good enough to graduate to playing on a University football team, and their reign moved up a notch. They ruled and roamed and were so cool. They quarterbacked on the BYU (insert your college here) football team. There were bad ass. If you met them, even saw them, you told people, you talked about it. But you know what? College ended. And then a lot of things changed. A tiny, tiny few of those uber studs went on to quarterback football in the NFL. We gathered the family and watched them defeat their enemies every Sunday. But if they didn’t defeat and win and perform, we shook our fist and yelled at the TV or booed in the stadiums. Popularity became performance, performance became popularity. Over time and judged by history, an even tinier few of those warriors became Payton Manning or Brett Favre or John Elway or Dan Marino or Joe Montana or Johnny Unitas or Roger Staubach–the best of all time. That group of players where judged by how many touchdowns they threw, how many games they won, how many championship trophies they have on their mantel. They are judged on performance in the big leagues, and if they don’t perform, they’re not popular. Quite a difference between that and high school. It’s why we call them professionals. They perform.

Our politicians are high school football quarterbacks (shoot, some of them are high school kickers, some I read about are even the water boy). They’re not judged or accountable for real performance. They’re going through the motions so we all think they’re cool, so that they can be reelected in the greatest coolness competition and system the world has ever known. Too often, they spend energy on massive wastes of time pandering to what they expect will gain them favor with their constituents. The system (just like high school) rewards it. We don’t just need a Joe Montana president, we need Joe Montana politicians across the board. Guys that audible the right play and throw touchdowns when game is on the line. But guess what? Joe Montana politicians can’t exist, can’t function, without the NFL.

So a year has gone by. Change didn’t happen. For all that President Obama promised, I see very little that the day he won the election wouldn’t have been handled the same way as John McCain, or anyone else for that matter. Same types of people got appointments, same types of decisions are happening, same bickering and pointing blame, same posturing and positioning for 10 minutes of fame. Am I regretful that I voted for Obama? No. McCain would have done things different, but in this perverse way, all the exact same. And at least Obama inspired me for a time, maybe that’s all I can hope for. 3rd party candidates might be better, but the problem is, they can’t get elected, they can’t even make the high school football team. I’m disappointed mostly. There are no doubt vast differences among politicians and the actions they take and their priorities, but in the end, they’re all still playing with other 17 year olds on Friday nights in front of 500 people at Budge Field at Burley High. It’s business as usual, and most damningly, politics as usual. Can’t we figure out a way as a country to get NFL players playing in the Super Bowl on Sunday at the new Cowboys stadium in front of 100,000 people and millions more on TV?

We so greatly revere our Founding Fathers in this country, and the system they came up with (rightfully so). 222 years ago they took what the world had tried to that point, applied their own learnings and intelligence, and came up with the best system. But honestly? They came up with high school football. Unless as a country we can affect structural changes, nothing will change. Processes and systems are what we’re controlled and bound by now. Politicians can’t help but be politicians, no more than a high school football quarterback can help being the most popular kid in school. The world is different now, change is happening faster. Maybe we should look forward to the future for our country and our government and our citizens, rather than always looking over 200 years to the past.

I hoped things might change 365 days ago, but alas, for that to happen, we need the NFL, not high school athletics and cliques. Sorry Mr. Obama. I still think history will show that you were a good (maybe great) high school quarterback. But that’s not good enough for me. Your promise of change rings hollow to me now, but maybe that’s really not your fault. Maybe its our fault for not being intelligent enough to demand real foundational change. Here’s to your reelection in 3 years time, I know that’s what you’re already thinking about.

Popularity: 63% [?]

Comments Filed under Politics, Rants

Subscribe by [RSS] or [Email] to enjoy regular updates from my blog.