Dealing With the Election Defeat

Like many of you, I am deeply disappointed with news of the crushing election defeat: the San Diego stadium measure failed badly. This is almost tragic. It’s kind of like Football Brexit, a sudden tear in the social fabric. Who can imagine San Diego without the Chargers? The fabled franchise history that includes Dan Fouts, Junior Seau, and now Philip Rivers will likely be brutally disrupted within a year or two. St. Louis Chargers? The London Chargers? It would be nice to keep the suddenly resurgent AFC West intact. The Portland Chargers? If Salt Lake can host the Olympics, why not the Chargers?

But do not fear, fellow citizens. Our cherished tradition of peaceful team transition from one city to another will continue. California teams, in fact, have been a shining example not just of smooth relocation but of re-relocation (the Rams are back in LA) and even un-re-relocation (the Raiders want to move again, this time to Las Vegas). Remember, people, that football is bigger than any particular team or city. Let us all come together in unity to support the relocation process. Today, Mr. Goodell, we are all Chargers fans.

Oh, and we have a new President-elect. He will take office on January 20, 2017. But the sun will still rise. Only two weeks later, the country will come together on February 5, 2017 to celebrate Super Bowl 51 in Houston, Texas. The two-conference system may be messy and it does not always produce the best possible Super Bowl candidate, but at the end of the day there is a winner, the coaches shake hands, and players trade jerseys. Competition can be tough, even mean, but let us praise good sportsmanship at the end of the day, in football and in politics.

13 comments for “Dealing With the Election Defeat

  1. If Mitt Romney and Hillary Clinton can both urge supporters to give the guy a chance, I suppose I should too.

    I consider the peaceful transition of power one of the miracles of American Democracy. At the very least, we can all pray for our nation.

  2. That’s great news that the voters of San Diego chose not to bankroll a football stadium Those deals are almost always terrible for taxpayers, and end up pouring money (at taxpayers’ expense) into the pockets of the owners of the teams.

  3. Yup stadiums and especially big ticket one off events usually lose money for taxpayers.

    One hopes that people, especially the media, do a bit of self-reflection and soul searching after all this. There’s no way a win this big was simply about racism or all the other nonsense I’ve been hearing. Trump got nearly ? of latino vote and also outperformed Romney with most other minorities. There are larger forces at work. Even many very worried about Trump recognize deeper issues that I think far too many are trying to ignore.

  4. Clark in 3: ” There’s no way a win this big was simply about racism or all the other nonsense I’ve been hearing.”

    Do you mean that the allegations of racism, sexism, bullying, dishonesty, xenophobia, religious discrimination, and nonsensical policy claims are 1) “nonsense” in that you think Trump didn’t exhibit engage in such activities, 2) nonsense in that he did engage in them, but that was a minor element of his campaign and those issues where outweighed by more important issues, or 3) nonsense in that you think he engaged in such activities and after critical evaluation of such activities your judgement is that they are “nonsense”?

  5. No, I think they are valid criticisms and have even made them at times myself. But I think trying to explain what happened as if that were the major thing is simply misleading to the facts. There’s no doubt those voting for Trump didn’t assign those the weight I would have. But people are simply overlooking the pretty clear reasons people stated they voted for him. It’s not like people have been silent about this. We can dispute the validity of their reasoning but it seems odd to me how many are simply dismissing what people said they were concerned with.

    The reason Trump won is primarily about Democratic voters who enthusiastically voted for Obama voting for Trump over Clinton. That has a lot to do with how disliked Clinton was. And I fully admit that Republicans were little better in who they nominated. Way back in late spring there were tons of stories about how the election would be decided by who people disliked the least. This was then combined with a smaller amount of enthusiasm often by people angry over various things. Somehow Clinton took a weak hand and managed to alienate rural voters that much more.

  6. Building stadiums is not the business of cities. We don’t go around building large factories for the big 3 or others. Yes, we help with the roads, services and tax rebates to get the business. But a whole structure, doesn’t make good sense when other city service suffer or are cut because of budget issues. The real winner is the League and team owners. Almost all other cities in the USA don’t have a NFL team and they survive. If the owners want a stadium, build it and enjoy the fruit of their own labor.

  7. Indeed. Glad to see the Chargers stadium defeated. Government shouldn’t be in the business of entertainment.

  8. I don’t expect the coming four years to be pretty. If Trump and Ryan get their way, the inequality in this country will become even more massive. And those who put Trump in office will understand they’ve been sold a bill of goods. He can’t bring their blue-collar jobs back. They will next turn their anger, rightfully so, on him. If there is a silver lining in this horrendously dark cloud, it is that finally all will be able to see the fruits of the Republican devotion to supply-side economics. Maybe this is the only way we can finally kill this zombie economic system. George H. W. Bush called it “voodoo economics,” because it is totally bogus, but “zombie” actually fits it better. Every time you think it’s finally dead, it keeps coming back to life. But this time, with both houses of Congress and the White House able to implement it unimpeded, we will finally get to see it for what it is. But it won’t be pretty.

  9. I voted against the stadium two days before moving to another state. I would arrive at out new home ok time to vote. Sorry Dave! I will miss SD so much…

  10. Dave, I like your perspective and priorities. As Tip O’Neil was fond of saying: “All politics is local.”

  11. Wally…

    This is getting side tracked, but I’ll bite…

    “If Trump and Ryan get their way, the inequality in this country will become even more massive.”

    Not that I’m a fan of Trump in the slightest, but we’ve seen the inequality grow under both Republican and Democratic administrations. Do you really think this is something that will turn around under the leadership of Hillary instead? Or even an out-n-out socialist like Bernie?

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