‘All Politics is Local’ is an opinion column written by John Lyons, a member of West Hartford’s Democratic Town Committee.

By John Lyons

Each month I examine national issues and offer my thoughts on how West Hartford (and we as residents) are impacted. You’ll be surprised at how much seemingly small, or out-of-sight issues have a big impact on all of us.

I will start off with an apology: This month’s column is chock full of hate. I try to stay positive, but I just can’t anymore. I am full of hate and am finally going to spew it for the world to see.

If hate were ever “proper,” I would argue that my hate is the most proper and appropriately placed of all hatred.  It is justified, well directed and to the point. I’d dare even call it healthy and good, but I guess, in the end, that is for you to decide. I’m not changing my opinions.

I hate the Miami Heat Basketball team. They took our coach (Pat Riley) who I hate even more (but loved him as the Knicks coach) and won a bunch of championships that the Knicks never got to win. They often beat the Knicks in the process.

I can’t stand the Dallas Cowboys! I know it is not nice to kick someone when they are down (and boy, are the Cowboys down right now … hehe), but I can’t stand ‘em. I am still bitter with Washington for losing that game in 1989 which prevented the Cowboys from having a winless season.

And don’t even get me started on the Los Angeles Dodgers and their awful fans. Hate, hate hate! They buy their way into the playoffs every year and rarely deliver the goods for their over-spending ownership. This year they won, but still …

I think unfortunately, a piece of human nature is to dislike or judge someone or something based on many things. I think I have proven in my introduction that I am guilty of this. But hopefully you noticed something else quite apparent in my introduction – all my hatred was directed at sports teams.

Sports is such a great way to hate and I have felt this ever since the As beat the Mets for the world championship in 1973 when my heart was first broken at the tender age of nine. Many don’t care about sports, including my wife, and she often laughs at me as I suffer through Jets loss after Jets loss year after year, but directing hate in the sports world has always been “ok-ish.”

A few years ago, I sat in the St. Louis Cardinals’ stadium with a friend watching the Cards play the Mets. I was wearing a Mets shirt of some sort and taking razzing by their fans. The Mets were trailing, and Yoenis Cespedes came to bat with runners on. The count went to 3-1 and I turned to the Cardinal fans who had been razzing me and said he was going to hit the next pitch out of the park, and he did – for a three-run home run.

We hassled each other some more, then ordered beers and junk food and enjoyed the game as “mortal enemies” each hating the others team but enjoying the camaraderie as fans of the sport and sharing some great memories about the history between the two teams.

My first memory of a political race was in 1972. I was 8 years old but thanks to a neighbor who was politically active and liked to talk about it, I learned about that race between McGovern and Nixon. Nixon was hugely popular, and McGovern’s campaign stumbled with issues that wouldn’t even be newsworthy today. The neighbor was a Democrat who supported McGovern in a community laden with Republicans. Everyone got along and even at that young age, there was no apparent hate from or for anyone from the voters in the proverbial room.

Whitehouse.gov. Courtesy of John Lyons

Hatred has taken center stage over the last several election cycles. Where folks used to spew hatred in the sports arena and (hopefully) rarely elsewhere, today it has become OK to outwardly hate in politics. Fundraising groups take in millions to run divisive ads, social media provides a platform to people who have no qualifications to opine on issues and no business influencing others, and news media outlets and “personalities” peddle conspiracy theories and outright lies rather than discussing and informing on the issues. Hatred leads to donations and raising money is the only goal of most of these outside groups and much of it at the expense of civility.

I am all for arguing the issues. In the optimistic words of “President” Andrew Shepard: “Let’s see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who’s standing center stage and advocating, at the top of his lungs, that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours.”

Maybe political hatred is a sign of a late-stage democracy, maybe it is just because people haven’t caught up to the ease of creating manufactured hate and spreading is on social media, or maybe it has always been there lurking beneath the surface like Templeton, the cynical rat from “Charlotte’s Web,” but with the good of the nation at stake or maybe it is a spate of candidates with weak moral compasses that care only about their winning and not about the country.

I don’t know – but for Pete’s sake, can we just start hating each other’s sports teams again?

This coming Nov. 5 is Election Day. More people voted in the 2020 election than in any other prior election. Ever! To give you an idea, the 1972 Nixon/McGovern race I referred to in my column, the vote total was a little over 77 million. In 2020, 158 million presidential votes were cast. That is a great thing as people are engaging. Here is my reminder to vote. I could give you a hundred clichéd reasons, but the bottom line is it matters, and it feels good. You are a part of this democracy, now go BE a part of it!

The views expressed represent the opinion of John Lyons, and are not intended to represent the opinion of We-Ha.com or the West Hartford Democratic Town Committee.

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