Sherman R. Frederick/Properly Subversive
As the NFL season approaches, I’m reminded of how much football resembles politics.
When the Dallas Cowboys take on the NFL Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles next Thursday, all the hype of the pre-season will be tested. And, in the following games, teams such as my Arizona Cardinals or Las Vegas Raiders will face hard reality. Have they really done what it takes to contend for the title?
Talk will mean nothing.
Actual performance will mean everything.
Politics is like that, and I’d use California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, as a prime example.
After starting his bid for the 2028 nomination for president with a failed attempt to appear more middle-of-the-road with a podcast that featured discussions with the likes of Charlie Kirk, he’s come off of that strategy and achieved some traction as the No. 1 troll of Donald Trump.
He’s emulating the Trumpster with his own tongue-in-cheek red hat, shown at right.
He’s stepped up to challenge the special redistricting in Texas with his own special redistricting in California. It’s called Proposition 50 and will go to a vote of California voters this year. It will pass.
His press office is flooding social media with their spin, such as this recent pre-season hype:
I give Gavin credit for being good in the hype phase in his bid to run for president.
But sooner, rather than later, reality will set in.
Under Gavin’s watch, homelessness has surged in California, as this picture below in San Diego shows. People are demanding that the governor do something other than talk about it.
Crime in the big cities seems out of control. The quality of life, even in one of the more beautiful places on Earth, such as California, has become so unbearable that people are moving away.
Trump, meanwhile, is on a roll. The economy has improved, the mass illegal immigration across the Mexican border has stopped, workers have more money in their paychecks, and the federal presence in D.C. has drastically reduced crime in the nation’s capital. Trump is talking about extending the model to other high-crime U.S. cities, including San Francisco.
When that happens, the contrast between talk and action will become sharper.
Clever campaign slogans and memes will fade, and actual performance will be taken into account.
Let the season begin.
(Sherman R. Frederick is a Hall of Fame journalist and owner of Battle Born Media. You can read more of his writing at shermanfrederick.substack.com.)
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