Submariner said ...
Steven A. would have impressed me and been much more honest if he said that the focus on Jesse, Al, and the players is rather misplaced. If Rush doesn't get to own a team it will be the result of the WHITE owners' refusal.The real tension depicted in this episode is intraracial, between white people themselves - just like the last election.
From what I've heard Rush is not even a college graduate. He makes his money espousing a form of gangster rap for middle aged white working class men. Like Thomas Sutpen, Rush now stands in defiance of a tradition which excludes him.In many ways the NFL is the most conservative of major league sports. Many of the Jews who became basketball franchise owners in the Sixties and Seventies did so because the NFL restricted Jewish ownership. Of the big three, NFL ownership has the greatest leverage over labor. The elites who comprise ownership are as enchanted with Rush as they were with Sara Palin. They may speak with a southern or western twang and wear denim but they don't consider themselves hoi polloi.
I'm sure the overwhelming majority of owners share Rush's views. (A couple of months ago Rachel Maddow displayed statistics documenting that NFL owners contribute only the tiniest fraction of money to Democrats.) And of course they belong to all white clubs. But that doesn't mean they want to be conspicuous or bombastic about it. It makes for an odd combination when you have Rush denigrating black KIDS(!) and NFL propaganda showing players coddling with those same black kids.
The contradiction, therefore, is Rush himself. This ostensible palladin of the white working class desires membership in a most exclusive club. And the conflict isn't with black people trying to keep him out but white people of means who won't let him in. Don't allow yourselves to be misled by the surface narrative.
5 comments:
Sub,
The NFL is rotting at the core because "it" thinks liberal economics are the way to go. Everything you say may be true, but don't pretend as if the white ownership of the NFL represents some kind of traditional conservative mindset. Afterall, PINK is now the cool new uniform color.
Sub
I made a similar point to yours, albeit less eloquently, on another site I frequent.
Smith is playing a dirty game.
The latest news is that Rush was dropped from the group bidding for ownership and he is now blaming Obama.
One hundred years ago a white man of Limbaugh's notoriety and ambition would have been a member of what one writer has called the world's most exclusive club, the United States Senate. Now it's Obama who is a member of an even more exclusive club and Limbaugh is the one whose appeal is limited to white ethnics.
Last night Chris Matthews and Pat Buchanan were talking to Rev. Al as if he had the power to approve Rush's deal. Thankfully Sharpton didn't take the bait but put it back on the owners and the NFL and Limbaugh's own words. If broadbased overwhelming public pressure can't prevent the departure of local sports teams or bonuses delivered to executives at bailed out companies then how can one believe that outcries from a narrow stratum of blacks can stop a major league sport business transaction?
Sub
Rush is trying to blame the Revs along with a "liberal conspiracy."
He's claiming he already had a deal in place with the NFL's higher ups, but then the liberals killed it because he's conservative.
Now, I don't know if Rush knows this, but the NFL could give a flying f*ck about liberals. That's the most conservative league in the country. The problem wasn't liberals.
The old money conservatives who own most NFL teams didn't want Rush because he doesn't have the right pedigree. The new money conservatives who own the other teams didn't want him because he doesnt' know how to play the game properly when it comes to marketing.
He's a liability when he steps outside of the box they want him to inhabit. All conservatives know this. Rush thinks he's a power broker, but he's just a trained attack dog.
Dogs get crumbs, they don't get to sit at the table.
Well said. What I'm waiting to see is where do white nationalists go? They've had a good run but their corporate sponsors are leaving in droves. Indications are that tax policy in California will be undergoing substantial revisions. Carly Fiorina may be the standard bearer for the GOP but corporate hegemons in the state no longer support the permanent tax revolt. Will white nationalists focus their anger on marginalized others? We got a small taste this summer but I think in 2012 with their backs against the wall they will take off the gloves and come out swinging. It'll be Chicago 1968 but with angry middle aged white men and white women slinging projectiles.
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