How the Democrats Are Like The San Francisco Giants, And Why That Is A Bad Thing

How The Republicans Are Like The New York Yankees – The Bad Version

The rhythms of baseball are not like the rhythms of politics. In baseball, you play 162 games, the grind of all sports grinds, before the pressure builds for a couple often-glorious weeks of playoff fever.

In politics, especially after a presidential election, you get the playoffs first, during the election campaign. Then you are faced with the grind of governing.

The San Francisco Giants just won the World Series with a few stars – mostly pitchers – and a cast of role players who coalesced for a glorious stretch of clutch hitting. They got hot, and that was enough to go 11-4 through the playoffs and bring the championship, finally, to San Francisco.

The Democrats are like this. A few stars. A motley cast of interest groups and dissonant players. They coalesced around the Big Star, Obama, in 2008. They got hot just as the other team got historically cold, and they won. The Democrats win the pennant! The Democrats win the pennant! The Democrats win the pennant!

But remember, in politics, this comes first. And the Democrats, like the Giants, are not build for the grind. (At least the Giants aren’t now. They obviously have the potential to build a dynasty around their young pitching, for this to be their version of the 1996 Yankees, the scruffy first championship team that gets the ball rolling. But they aren’t there now. And the Democrats have the same potential. But aren’t there now.)

And the Democrats opponents, the Republicans? They are the Yankees. The worst version of the Yankees, the 1980s Yankees that won the most games but never a Series, or the 2002-2008 Yankees, who cynically spent and spent but only crushed regular season dreams, not winning anything.

The Republicans are built for the grind. For saying no over and over and over again. For staying on message. For raising the payroll every higher. For dirty tricks and scams.

And the Republicans have won, and will win tonight, and that is just not much fun. And we will likely have two more years of The Grind, but now in first place.

For the midterms are not like the baseball playoffs. They are smaller and more mundane. More like interleague play. And the Democrats can’t play all their stars, and they haven’t claimed playoff heroes off waivers yet.

And the Yankees always win at some point, like in 2009. Too much money and talent and discipline.

Too much fear.

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