November is a month for competition. It has football, Election Day, and Thanksgiving. Yes, even Thanksgiving. Who doesn’t fight over the turkey legs with the rest of their family? At my house, the competition over the leftovers gets so fierce that crowds often gather on our lawn with signs that read, "No Blood for Stuffing."
This month is a good time to reflect upon the virtue that makes America the leader of the free world. The bottom line is that the American people love competition. That includes liberals, who often do everything they can to limit it. No matter what your political leanings are, competition is in your blood. Even in the heart of Communist Berkeley, where competition is ignorantly equated with inequality and injustice, Cal students thirst for the drama and excitement of bitter rivalries. It’s why we love crowding Memorial Stadium and watching our guys annihilate their guys. It’s why we become bloodthirsty when the referee makes an asinine call.
Our love of competition is also why we love election season. No matter how much we gripe about the barrage of negative campaign ads interrupting our television programs and "turning us away from politics," deep down inside, the nasty personal attacks between rancorous candidates are as attractive as a car wreck on the side of the freeway; we just can’t look away. Many have said that politics is a contact sport. (For Mark Foley, it is a little more than that.) When you realize how captivated we all are to see the ideological blood of a demagogue spilled in political battle, you will tend to agree with the comparison.
We crowd the bleachers and display our colors, loudly yelling our support for our side, in an atmosphere akin to a political rally. Like Arnold supporters waving their window signs, or Angelides supporters waving their white flags, Cal Bears fans brandish their gold and blue banners in passionate adulation.
Football and politics do of course have their differences. If one could win public office by tackling his or her opponent, then Republicans would never lose. If Coach Jeff Tedford could win a game by recruiting Karl Rove and airing a series of commercials that smear the record of Peter Carroll, Rove would be eligible for the Heisman. Democrats would accuse Republicans of favoring the bigger, corporate-sponsored players, and Republicans would accuse Democrats of appeasing the evil BCS. Perhaps it is better that football is not played like a political match, but the rough and tumble of the political world leaves you just as bruised as a scrimmage with USC.
In our hippie-infested corner of America, political competition is as alien as half the population of California. The only competition that the Bay Area knows of involves liberals competing to out-crazy one another, which gets incredibly dull when you know that the "Bush is the Antichrist" player will always be victorious. It’s almost as predictable as the Big Game, when we give the peewee leaguers from across the Bay their annual thrashing. In fact, on Page 24, James Fullmer explains why Stanfurd simply can’t provide the competition that Cal’s excellent football team demands.
As far as the election is concerned, Berkeley thankfully doesn’t set the political tone for the entire state. The rest of California has a chance to weigh in on Election Day, so don’t let the Daily Cal, the ASUC, or the Berkeley faculty convince you that your only choice this November is between left and far left. On Pages 14 through 16, check out the California Patriot’s own voter guide. We provide our recommendations on how to preserve the California Dream from the blitz of left-wing interests. Even the liberals’ own MVPs of socialism, Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Lee, have to cope with the scary thought of competing against a few right-minded candidates. On Pages 22 and 23, meet John den Dulk, the man running against Barbara "Don’t Attack the Terrorists" Lee, and Mike DeNunzio, running against Nancy "Cut and Run" Pelosi. Even though the odds are against the GOP in the Bay Area, it’s good to know that Republicans will never go down without a fight.
In politics, like in any competition, to the victor belong the spoils. This holds true even at the smallest echelon of authority. Our own student government, the ASUC, has decided to try to fleece its fellow classmates of over $22,000 to pay for some personal legal fees, which reminds me of an additional point; in any competition, there exist a few liars and cheaters. On Page 10, Chris Page provides more commentary about the sore winners who represent us.
Ultimately, there will be winners and losers. As many pollsters have indicated, even the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade will not be able to cheer up Republicans in some congressional districts after November 7. But even among the GOP, a competition rages between which is most important to us in this election: victory or values. On Pages 20 and 21, Sunthosh Madireddi and Aditya Kashyap provide a glimpse into this intra-party clash of ideas.
At Cal, where liberal homogeneity seems to rule, the Patriot can only promise to awaken the fierce competitiveness that makes politics that enthralling car wreck, that unofficial contact sport. And while we embrace the competition that divides us by left and right, Democrat and Republican, or liberal and rational, we move forward as one student body, cheering in unison our unifying battle cry: "Go Bears!"
Your Compatriot,
Andrew R. Quinio
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