Washington Political Super Bowl

Watching the Super Bowl last Sunday in Patriot country Connecticut, I couldn’t help think what a metaphor the Super Bowl — football being America’s most popular sport — is of American culture and politics, especially with the State of The Union coming up in a couple days.

The Super Bowl, much like the political game in Washington, was a defensive coordinators dream that gave us the lowest score Super Bowl in history. A 3-0 score at halftime, 3-3 score after three quarters, and the first time in 53 games a touchdown hadn’t been scored through the first 45 minutes. No different than Washington. Neither the Democratic or Republican parties are scoring for their constituents. Each side is being repeatedly blocked by the other resulting in the lowest delivering Congress ever!

The best thing about the game were the commercials. Much like Washington’s political ads that over-exaggerate what the politicians there are delivering.

President Trump being a Patriots fan and friend of Robert Kraft, its owner and Trump supporter, with Speaker Pelosi being from Ram country California, the metaphoric analogy in the fight to win the Lombardi Trophy — Trump’s Trophy Wall — that resulted in the record-breaking 35-day partial government shutdown, was inevitable.

The Patriots, like Trump, are despised for their wins, for drafting criminals, for cheating and breaking rules. But they continue to win. They rammed through the California defense and won their sixth Super Bowl. So will Trump.

Watching Trump deliver his second State of the Union address with Speaker Pelosi shadowing him from behind, one can’t help think how she played better defense than the Rams by refusing to let Trump come to the House chamber to deliver his address as long as federal agencies were closed and workers unpaid. Trump fumbled and backed down.

Pelosi has blocked Trump’s efforts to build a border wall and the president conceded as much during his speech. He indicated he will settle for a steel barrier. That is much better than declaring a national emergency and bypassing Congress to build the wall.

The political Super Bowl showdown date of February 15, on whether, how and with what the Southern border will be secured, or the government partially shut down again, is just as nail biting a political game as last Sunday’s Super Bowl.