Monday, June 14, 2010

As the World Cup starts, conservative media declare war on soccer.



Now it appears as if Glenn Beck has waged a war against the world cup which he sees as an indicative of Barack Obama's policies.

"Barack Obama's policies are the World Cup." In an extensive rant on the June 11 Glenn Beck Program, Beck purported to explain how President Obama's policies "are the World Cup" of "political thought." Beck stated, "It doesn't matter how you try to sell it to us, it doesn't matter how many celebrities you get, it doesn't matter how many bars open early, it doesn't matter how many beer commercials they run, we don't want the World Cup, we don't like the World Cup, we don't like soccer, we want nothing to do with it." Beck stated that likewise, "the rest of the world likes Barack Obama's policies, we do not.
And it seems, from the comments of G. Gordon Liddy, that what they object to is the idea of America even joining the rest of the world in a competition; as America should embrace it's own exceptionalism.
G. Gordon Liddy: "Whatever happened to American exceptionalism?" Discussing soccer's popularity in the U.S. on his June 10 program, G. Gordon Liddy asked, "Whatever happened to American exceptionalism?" Liddy noted that "this game ... originated with the South American Indians and instead of a ball, they used to use the head, the decapitated head, of an enemy warrior."
As always, Liddy is talking nonsense. Football originated in the public schools of England, and had nothing whatsoever to do with South American Indians and decapitated heads.

But MRC's Dan Gainor gets a little nearer to the truth regarding why these people hate football so much.
Also on the June 10 G. Gordon Liddy Show, Media Research Center's Dan Gainor said, "the problem here is, soccer is designed as a poor man or poor woman's sport" and that "the left is pushing it in schools across the country." He added: "generally football games in this country don't devolve into riots or wars." He later added that the sport of soccer "is being sold" as necessary due to the "browning of America."
The reason football is "the poor man's game" is because all that is required to play it is a ball. But why should the fact that something is the "poor man's game" mean that it is automatically bad?

Football is the most popular sport in the world, which is why these Republicans hate it so very much. They don't want the US joining in with the rest of the planet. They see the US's role as floating above the rest of us.

Which is their loss. I am sure, had they been paying any attention, they would have thoroughly enjoyed the fact that the US held England to a draw.

Click here for full article.

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