You’re Not On the Team

When Americans talk about politics, they talk as if they’re on the team. You’re not on the field. You’re a fan sitting in the stands.

There’s a sketch from the British comedy team Mitchell and Webb in which a man comes into the office the day after Liverpool trashed Tottenham. He’s gloating to his officemate about how “we” beat “you lot.” His officemate gets fed up, and starts asking about that time they were fighting the Germans after they stole the Ark of the Covenant. Raiders of the Lost Ark is a film he likes, so he decided he was in it. Then he gloats about what happened to his officemate when “they” opened the Ark and their faces melted off.

Americans regularly talk about Democrats and Republicans as “us” and “them.” They brag about how “we” did something, or complain about what “they” did. Except they’re not actually on the field. They’re just fans sitting in the stands.

It’s time they started acting like it.

POLITICS IS A TEAM SPORT

Politics is a team sport. If you want to get elected, much less get anything done in office, a lot of people have to work together as a seamless team. A political party is an operation working across fifty states coordinating people in multiple tiers of government—legislatures and executives, local, state, and federal. It requires people with an array of skills like communications, coalition building, field operations, and policy development. A political party is like a complex national corporation, one with fierce competition always looking to trip it up.

Like any team, parties expect loyalty from their members. Teams never want loose cannons, selfish operators, or unreliable freelancers throwing monkey wrenches into the operation. They want everybody to do their part, cooperate, defer to leaders, and keep unhelpful opinions to themselves. That’s why parties regularly get frustrated by political mavericks like John McCain, Joe Lieberman, Adam Kinzinger, Joe Manchin, or Kyrsten Sinema. Using independent judgment to buck their party’s leaders, while exactly what America’s Founders thought politicians were supposed to do, reads to teammates like making it harder for the team to execute its goals. 

Team dynamics are awful at challenging bad ideas, finding truth, or self-correcting mistakes. They’re good at organizing people to execute a complex goal that no member could accomplish alone.

There’s no point expecting political parties not to stay on message, coordinate behind the scenes, put the best spin on actions, hide mistakes, or exaggerate the missteps of opponents. It’s no better in business, which demands employees follow directives that contradict their judgment, sideline truth-tellers who question leadership, and punish whistleblowers. It’s no better in churches, which excommunicate pastors who go against church authority. Football teams don’t reward the running back who refuses to run the called play, or reward the assistant coach who calls out the head coach’s mistakes to journalists.

A team doesn’t want to play like a group of talented individuals. It wants to play like a team. Which is fine if you’re actually on the team.

EVERYTHING IS PROPAGANDA

Everything today is propaganda. Everything is politicized.

It’s obvious that most of what I see and read isn’t treating me like an equal. It’s not trying to inform me. It’s not trying to tell me truths. It’s not trying to entertain. It’s not trying to give me what I want. It’s treating me like an object to manipulate. Its purpose isn’t to help me, but to trick me in order to help the team. There’s a name of this: public relations and propaganda.

This is out in the open, and everyone knows what’s going on. They know they’re not telling me the truth. I know they know they’re not telling me the truth. They know I know they’re not telling me the truth. Nobody’s keeping this as some big secret because they’re quite proud of what they’re doing. They’re doing what’s expected to help their team win. It’s infuriating, toxic for democracy, and totally counter-productive to their own goals.

I don’t expect Nancy Pelosi or Mike Johnson to come into an interview and tell me the truth. I don’t expect them to tell me when their party makes a big mistake. I don’t expect them to tell me all the downsides of their policies, or when their rivals are correct. It would be absurd for me to expect anything else because they’re players on the field. I expect them to cover for colleagues, stay on message, and push forward whatever is best for their team’s goals. I expect them to carry water for the team.

What I don’t expect or accept is this same attitude from journalists. I don’t want it from a filmmaker or an artist. I don’t want it from some random social media account. I absolutely don’t want to deal with it from a person in my real life. None of them are on the team. They’re just fans.

Unless you’re running for office or in the trenches working for a politician, you’re not a member of Red Team or Blue Team. Just like, no matter how much you like them, you’re not a member of the New York Yankees. You might have grown up in New York. You might watch every game. You might have season tickets. You’re not on the field. You’re in the bleachers.

The fan’s job is different from the player’s. When you’re on the team, you’re expected to put the team’s interests above your own. For fans, it’s the opposite. It’s the fan’s job to criticize.

Have you ever listened to sports radio? Do the super fans who call into sports radio make excuses for bad trades? For bad coaching? For star players who make mistakes on the field? Do they make excuses to cover up their team’s mistakes? Or do they rip their team apart, call them bums, and demand things change? This is for a reason. Fans are expected to call out their team’s mistakes. They’re supposed to obsess over the details and pick the coach apart. They’re supposed to demand bad players get let go. They’re supposed to call out lies the team is trying to sell to journalists. Fans are the ones who hold the team accountable.

Nobody can force accountability and change except the fans. The other team can’t. Of course they say you suck, and the team doesn’t care about their opinion anyway. The players can’t. They have to hold their tongue and listen to the coach and management. Accountability has to come from fans.

If fans were to make excuses, lie, or cover up for their team’s screw ups, that’s not helping. That’s abdicating responsibility. If the fans are lying, making excuses, and carrying water, nothing is ever going to change.

OUR PROPOGANDA CULTURE

Right now, nothing is honest and everyone sees through it. Most people seem to be pretty proud of it. We live in a culture of lies. The problem is none of these noble lies convince anyone. Everyone can see through what everybody is doing. Everyone thinks they’re in PR, but they’re bad at it.

Who do people think they’re convincing when they lie for their political team? The other team isn’t listening to you, doesn’t believe you, and doesn’t care what you have to say. The uncommitteds are just disgusted with both sides and believe nobody. The only people you’re fooling is your own team—the people who actually most need to hear the truth from you. They only thing you’re accomplishing is burning your credibility and stopping your team from getting better.

What our leaders need right now isn’t more excuses for their failures. They need the people to care about holding their feet firmly to the fire. They need you picking apart their bad decisions, throwing better policy ideas at them, vetting their awful candidates, testing them in the crucible, and demanding they do better. They need you shouting at their screw ups and calling them bums. If you worry that’s helping the other side, don’t flatter yourself. The other side isn’t listening to your opinions anyway, but they’re happy to let you continue to let your own side flounder about and fail. Who knows, maybe if we keep it up for long enough, we can someday get the reform and better leaders we need to build improved version of our parties actually worthy of our support.

People need to understand they’re not players. They’re fans. The fan’s job isn’t to help their team win. The fan’s job is to help them deserve to win. If fans won’t do it, the team is never going to get any better. They’re just going to keep losing for another decade and it’s going to be your fault.

What do you think about leaving the team for the bleachers? Join the community in the comments.