Washington’s Most Heated Rivalry
Morgan Schorn, Clapham Summer Intern, reflects on political polarization through the lens of the Congressional baseball game.
Photo by Elijah Mears on Unsplash
Politics has long been compared to sports. The competitiveness and the win-at-all-costs mindsets of modern politics may even give Michael Jordan’s The Last Dance a run for its money. As a newcomer to Washington, interning this summer with the Clapham Group, I recently attended an event that concretely mixed both. The annual Congressional Baseball Game takes place every June where congressmen and a few Senators from both sides of the aisle play in Nationals Stadium for charity and to claim the Roll Call trophy.
While the caliber of baseball played resembles that of a church rec league, I found the attitudes and behaviors of the attendees truly captivating. The stadium itself was split into Republican and Democrat sections, with fans sitting behind their preferred team's bench. This physical segregation based on political ideology created a unique dynamic I had never seen elsewhere.
It seems to embolden attendees to express themselves more freely than they might in other public settings. For instance, a Disney commercial celebrating their partnership with the Make-A-Wish Foundation was met with boos from the Republican side, highlighting the partisan divide even during moments of goodwill. Similarly, reactions to climate change protesters storming the field were understandably different depending on which side of the stadium one stood.
Photo by Jimmy Conover on Unsplash
As social media algorithms have created digital echo chambers in which everyone we interact with online is of the same political views, public spaces can and should be different. We cannot assume that every person we walk past on the street shares our political beliefs.
We can all agree that the echo-chambers of belief in our mainstream and social media is bad for our polarization and society. I think that makes it all the more important to engage with people physically about our political differences, since that is one of the last remaining spaces for those conversations to happen. These real-world conversations are increasingly vital as we seek to reduce polarization exacerbated by online discourse.
Given the history of the Congressional Baseball Game, I was glad that boo’s and protesters running onto the field was as mild as it was. Previously things have been much worse. In 2017 while practicing for the game, then Majority Whip Leader Steve Scalise was shot by a man with malicious intent. The shooter had specifically confirmed that it was the Republicans who were practicing, before he entered the stadium and opened fire. This was an extremely violent example of the consequences of political divides.
Baseball is America’s pastime and is known for its passionate rivalries, where people not only want their team to win, but the other to lose. I would like to think, as competitive as the Congressional Baseball Game is, that it is better as a country if the two parties can learn to play ball together so as all can win.