Political Whisperer
By Robert Hornak
There are many analogies between sports and football. And they all get to the heart of the politics of politics. Yes, good politicians play hardball. They keep advancing the ball down the field. They can take a hit and return in kind. And they never get a shutout, you just need more points on the board than the other team when the clock runs out.
And it’s ultimately a zero sum game. Someone wins and someone loses. The winners take the spoils and the losers go home to lick their wounds, maybe to chalk up a win another time.
But politics is only half the political battle. Once you win, you don’t get a trophy that projects your victory over the next year. Politics then shifts into governing, where all the winners now need to find a way to work together to achieve their real goals – implementing policy.
In sports, the fans don’t ever need to get along. Great rivalries have led to all kinds of conflicts, including physical altercations in the stands and beyond. But that is not supposed to be mirrored in politics. The voters should not be taking political rivalries as deeply personal and emotionally as we do our sports allegiances.
In sports we can be just a Yankee or Red Sox fan, we never show fealty to the league, but in politics ultimately we are all Americans.
NY Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart’s dalliance into national politics is yet another example of how our politics has become too toxic, leaving no room for everyone to look at the world just as an American.
On Friday, President Trump appeared at a rally at Rockland Community College to support the reelection of Hudson Valley Rep. Mike Lawler. Dart stepped up to the microphone with the Survivor classic “Eye of the Tiger” playing, and said, “What’s up, what’s up, what’s up. Look, Big Blue Nation it’s a pleasure to be here.”
“What an honor, what a privilege it is to be here” he said before introduced Trump.
This small gesture was enough for the world to be turned upside down, and for news outlets like the NY Times and the Daily News to print pieces attacking Dart for dar- ing to step outside his lane, in a way that was not in line with their views. One of Dart’s own teammates, Abdul Carter, wrote on X, “Thought this s— was AI, what we doing man.” A new hashtag was started, #NotMyQB.
Surely if Dart had introduced a Democrat the media reaction would have been entirely different. He got the Sydney Sweeney treatment. The same treatment Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley, a former Giant, received last year when he golfed with Trump at Bedminster. No rally. No political speeches. Just golf.
The reaction prompted Barkley to post “Maybe I just respect the office, not a hard concept to understand. Just golfed with Obama not too long ago…and look forward to finishing my round with Trump!”
And that is how this should work. Sure, there are always people who speak out in politics who are well known in another arena. Actors, singers, sports figures, and so on. And sometimes our opinion of them is changed, but that should be based on how they handle themselves. Not just because they revealed their personal preference.
Our politics needs to be more human again, realizing that while we may disagree with many people about political agendas or allegiances, we still have much in common as human beings and as Americans and in the end can put those differences aside and find our common ground for the betterment of the one team we all are supposed to fighting for.
Robert Hornak is a veteran political consultant who has previously worked for the NYC office of the Republican Assembly Leader and served as Executive Director of the Queens Republican Party. He can be reached at rahornak@gmail.com and @roberthornak on X.
