In this article we’re going to continue the first one, comparing political campaigns and the election to sports.

Sports: The competition IS the work

One difference: When sports players are competing, they’re working. This single-focus helps the players stay true to their quest. 

A politician’s real work starts when the competition is over. And good representation is useless without winning, so after the contest politicians are working as much to prepare for the next competition and they do on representation. So if winning conflicts with representing us well, what do you expect to happen?

Sports: The rules and goals are clear

Another difference: In basketball, the rules are clear. The goals are clear. 

In politics, what are the rules? How can a politician win? What earns points? Clearly winning the election is important. But once the competition is over, it’s all muddy. Is the goal “serving the people?” Or maybe “representing our true interests.” Or “crafting good bills and compromises” and “supporting good solutions?” How do we measure those? Do we even measure them? In a system where there’s no real accountability and the goals and rules are muddy, you wouldn’t expect to find either good performance or integrity. Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised that those are missing in Congress.

Sports: The teams are clear

And on a sports team, everyone on the team is coordinating for the effort to be successful.

Getting something passed in Congress is like herding cats. Imagine playing basketball on a playground where there are 12 different hoops. You get the ball close to hoop and then your teammate runs the ball to another hoop. Or he and a guy from the opposing team work together to get the ball to a different hoop. It’s a weird game.

Transparency

A player’s responsibilities are clear. And they perform in full view of a huge audience. And cameras! There are even referees!

What does my representative do? I don’t know. Congress seems stuck and needs a new culture, new expectations, new rules. I don’t hear her talking about those things. But she doesn’t say much. I can go to her website and read nice things, but no specific promises.

Accountability

A player is accountable to the coach and the team owner. They guide the player. Or they can sit down and decide together what they want and how to achieve it. The coach and the owners have expectations. They ask: What happened? And they get answers. The player gives promises. The opinions of the coach and team owner matter. And they can fire the player.

My representative is not actually accountable to me. I can help hire or fire her once every two years. I can’t guide her. I certainly have no way to expect results, like a boss can. I can’t judge her and reward her with a grade, like a teacher does to a student. She’s not accountable to me. Or really, to anyone, though she certainly tries to be.

Worse, she IS accountable to the party. And she is probably accountable to her big donors. She’s a well-liked incumbent so there’s really no competition. Plus she has plenty of funds in her war chest.

What we need is a new game

In the next article, we’ll see we just need a new game. Some new rules could easily make Congress more functional. In the meantime, please add your email address to our announcement list.