A Copycat League

"We could feed a homeless person with all the food on the floor of our house" Mrs. Fundman declared this morning as she and I were surveying the destruction that our Second Annual Super Bowl Fiesta wrought upon our home, and frankly I could not disagree with her - a shocking first. Although to be honest our agreement this morning may also have been born from my hangover which sapped whatever energy I may have had to disagree with her. To her credit she saved me from a mammoth headache by shoving Advil in my hand late last night which I washed down with a big gulp of Malbec.

I vaguely recall watching the game, freaking-out when the UVerse stopped working in the 2nd quarter, watching the Czarina and La Cheapa Chica dance and sing their way through ABBA's Dancing Queen during the sound interruption just before the half, lecturing Fundbaby on the finer points of the Steeler's various blitz schemes, and eating a lot of Velvetta.

But I do recall the earlier parts of the day, and during one of the 769 pregame shows, some former football player was commenting on the league-wide revival of the 3-4 defense that the Steelers used this past season. This guy, along with mis-using the phrase ironic about 7 times, not very originally noted that the NFL was a "copycat league" and cited how the schemes of successful teams, such as the West Coast offense and Tampa-2 defense, become the models for others throughout the league.

Well Friday the Republicans continued that tradition by electing, of all things, a middle aged, good looking, African American lawyer, as the head of their party. Where could they possibly have gotten that idea from? If a Martian had been elected president would the GOP have chosen a Martian party chair?

Yes leave it to the GOP to make PT Barnum look relevant once again. I mean how friggin dumb do politicians think people are? So like 2 months after losing an election to a black man, the Republicans nominate a black man to be their party chair, and the guy has won exactly one election in his entire career, lost at least two other elections, including a Republican primary, and did a pretty lousy job as Maryland GOP chair.

The hilarious thing about this, is that when I did a Google search for Michael Steele in blogs I got this collection of hits. Now I didn't go past page three (hey, I do have a job), but none, NONE of the blogs mentioned the obvious reason the Republicans chose him - cause he's black. Folks on the left, like this guy, probably aren't sure if they can write about the hypocrisy of it because they are so afraid of sounding racist. And folks on the right are probably too embarrassed, and frankly unaccustomed, to discussing race, so all they are talking about are his views on guns and his stupid quote on stem cell research.

But if you listen to all the "mini" Limbaughs of the world like this guy, they are angry that he looks pretty unqualified without the race thing. I'd say it will take them about 4 days to start turning on Steele and his inclusiveness strategy.

I'm not saying the Republicans shouldn't try to do something different, and imitation is supposed to be the highest form of flattery. Losing elections forces parties to try attract more voters. And who knows, today's GOP may successfully reach out to blacks, tofu eating dupe smoking hippies, and radical feminists. Monkeys may also fly out of my ass later today.

To be fair there's been a lot of change in the composition of the duopoly in U.S. history. As much as we may forget it, Democrats used to be the party of farmers while Republicans were the party of urban dwellers. Democrats used to be a Southern party, and Republicans used to be moderates. And of course it was a Republican president who ended slavery, and a Democratic Congress that blocked Civil Rights Legislation for years.

But there's a big difference between trying something "new" and just "imitating" your successful opponents. Teams that copied the "West Coast" offense didn't do so well. The San Francisco 49ers who originated the "West Coast" offense won a ton of Super Bowls. Losers imitate winners. Winners innovate.

And frankly I think we need more differences between the Republicans and Democrats, not fewer differences.