First, we had a black "man" on trial for murdering hundreds of babies and the defense argued that the prosecutors were engaged in an "essentially racist prosecution" of a 'man' who murdered babies and women. Then, there was the tragedy of the Boston Bombing which saw media outlets hoping for a white Christian man to be the terrorist involved. Following that, we opened the summer with a trial that was based completely on race and race relations and had nothing to do with any attack that occurred or self-defense laws. Now, finally, we can enjoy the truly wonderful sport of Rodeo without having to deal with a black President's face on a clown who runs around for pure entertainment.
I mean, come on, no other President has ever had to deal with this kind of ridicule, right? George H. Bush only had a dummy destroyed at the horns of a bull. And hundreds of thousands of masks and artwork have been done and made fun of at rodeos and fairs of not only Presidents but other government officials as well. We really have gone too far in the rodeo business this time, haven't we? Saturday Night Live, however, is completely free to make fun of the President, Presidential candidates and other political figures because, well, it's comedy, right?
Not only is this rodeo clown incident a non-incident thanks to the First Amendment and the fact that we don't live in a monarchy where making fun of the King sees you straight out of a job and shunned by the entire country, but it's yet another example of media bull-plosion. Yes, the entire incident could be seen as a batch of ill-humor. Yes, the office of President of the United States deserves and demands respect. Yes, there were people in attendance who laughed (each one of them is being rounded up as I type). However, we don't live in some statist dictatorship where it's even slightly called for for someone to lose their job over wearing a mask that depicts the President.
Or are we moving in that direction? Does the "hate crime" have to be against any race other than white for it to be considered "hate"? Is "hate speech" going to start to include anything that anyone finds offensive? Or is it specific to this President? Will there be an "Offensive Police" now, going after anyone that says or does anything remotely racist? (Outside of the media that is)
Now, let's be clear on one thing: this entire Missouri Rodeo Association thingy has gotten WAY out of hand. Once again, radio talk-show hosts, news anchors and cable news shows have devoted hours upon hours to this one story that has nothing to do with national media nor should have garnered national attention. But, the people eat it up and will read, listen to and watch this sort of news any day over the real news of Egypt, rising debt and ObamaCare fallout to name just a few.
So, you may ask, why did I decide to write a blog post about the Rodeo Clown from Missouri Who is Clearly a Racist? Well, not only is it national news, it's also a very good segway into how politics and sports are intertwined because, believe it or not, rodeo is in fact a sport in these United States.
The first edition of Sporting the Politics of America will be coming out later in August.
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