To politicize anything means to turn it into a weapon for your advantage. Late in life I realize that anything can be politicized, which is to say: degraded, mocked or utterly corrupted. It especially sad to see the whole gamut in one week in January.
First, the Taylor Swift fiasco is a mockery of her public image. She has become an “idol” in the religious sense and her followers endangered worshippers. Her involvement in voter registration and her support for former Gov. Phil Bredesen, who was running for the Senate against then-Representative Marsha Blackburn, and Jim Cooper (a House member who has since retired) incited insults from Newsmax host Greg Kelly who said, But I think what they call it is, they’re elevating her to an idol. Idolatry. This is a little bit what idolatry, I think, looks like. And you’re not supposed to do that. In fact, if you look it up in the Bible, it’s a sin! So, I don’t like that.” [ https://www.huffpost.com/entry/greg-kelly-taylor-swift-fans-idolatry-sin_n_65b907bfe4b0102bd2d62292 ] It may make be spiritual to some, but to me it is mockery of things spiritual.
The NFL has been degraded for its politically incorrect pro-vaccine advocacy and its Rooney Rule (mandatory interview with Black candidates for head coaching). “Cancelling” is not only the prerogative of the p0litical left. Now the NFL is accused of fabricating the romance of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce for public relations and for a plan for Taylor to announce her support of Democrats during the Super Bowl.
Alison Steinberg, a host on the ultraconservative One America Network, claimed that Swift’s relationship is a “fake, carefully crafted show” meant to get children “obsessed with some grown man who gets paid millions of dollars every year to throw a ball around while promoting poison death shots.
This allegation credits the NFL with much more daring than you would expect, since it is run by owners that worry about attendance and image first. To plan this kind of political stunt goes far beyond their risk tolerance, so there is no credibility to that rumor.
Finally, the complex bill on Israel, Ukraine, and southern border control came out of committee and was immediately savaged by supporters of Donald Trump. The Republican Senator who negotiated the present proposal with funds and executive power is James Lankford of Oklahoma. “There’s political pressure to say, ‘If we fix the border now, then Biden’s suddenly gonna get off the hook and it’ll help his presidential campaign,'” Lankford said. But Lankford, a respected Republican, crafted the compromise bill that would potentially resolve the stalemate over border security. The complaint that it would weaken the immigration case for former President Trump is sadly cynical. Is it possible a candidate for President of the United States would sabotage a bill that would save lives and preserve security just for the arming of his political campaign? Oh yes. A democratic process could be utterly corrupted.
Apparently everything from passing vital immigration legislation to the idolization of rock stars can be politicized. It is as if the mere contact with a polarizing issue turns institutions and people into agents of a conspiracy.
In an election year, probably everything can, and will be, politicized, but it doesn’t make it newsworthy. Let the boycotts of the NFL and Taylor Swift concerts begin, but try not to sling mud just to degrade the reputation of every person and institution in sight.
Above all, let important compromises and desperately needed legislation pass without Donald Trump’s blessing. Talk about idolatry, what would you call the Republican Party’s fealty to the former President? The failure to bargain over legislation in good faith strikes at the heart or democracy. That is what happened at the end of January, when the Mitch McConnell offered that legislation crafted by a member of his own party could not pass without the former President’s blessing. That was a sad day for democracy, indeed.