Sunday, July 15th, 2007...9:40 pm
Reading Way Too Much Into It
One of the possible traps that we political activists fall into is seeing every action of others through the lenses of our own ideology. It can lead us into giving folks political motives where none exist, basically because we think everyone must believe just as we do.
We have to remember sometimes that most people, even those interested in public affairs, are not always entirely driven by the latest political bruhaha when they act.
Case in point: the other day, the Los Angeles Galaxy introduced David Beckham as the latest member of the squad. The event was attended by 5000 fans, mostly from two supporter organizations, the LA Riot Squad and the Galaxians.
Well, Antonio Villaraigosa showed up and was booed after being introduced. Folks on the right immediately attributed this to Villaraigosa’s advocacy of immigration and the recent revelation of an extra marital affair. I found a half dozen ironies here, number one that Republicans and the anti-immigration crowd are paying attention to soccer. Odd, ennit?
But here is the stupid part, it wasn’t about immigration at all. LA Riot Squad member sent out an e-mail to members of the press about the incident:
I was at the Beckham intro this morning, and the catcalls were pretty fierce. Some of it, I’m sure, is from some of his um, recent notoriety. But there is also a soccer specific reason for this. Villaraigosa has been very publically identified with Chivas USA, including wearing their shirt the first time the Galaxy played Chivas at the HDC with Chivas as the home team….Supporting Chivas is much more unforgivable than adultery.
In other words, Villaraigosa took sides in a hometown rivalry. Not only did he wear the Chivas USA shirt at the first game against the Galaxy, but he walked out into the middle of the field wearing it to present the game ball (got booed by Galaxy fans then too). He’s buddies with the owner of Chivas, Antonio Cue. He’s probably their highest profile fan. Imagine if Janet Napolitano was always seen wearing ASU apparel, then showed up at a U of A game. No matter how popular she is down here, there would be some, eh, dissatisfaction.
One of the most infamous leaders in the LA Riot Squad is actually a contributor to BartCop, a site that makes this one look like the National Review. I have serious doubts that he’s trying to advance some conservative agenda here.
One Riot Squad member shouted “Is your girlfriend here to cover this?” Okay, there was the shot at his recent troubles. One has to remember that these are folks that take pride in the verbal abuse they dish out to oposing fans and players (I’ve been on the recieving end myself, then they invited me to their barbecue), they are more tweaked that this guy, famously a Chivas fan, throws on a Galaxy jersey when there are cameras around.
NB - So, why aren’t folks mad that this foreigner Beckham is taking a job an American can do, for less money even? I mean, Ryan Suarez could use the work.
4 Comments
July 16th, 2007 at 2:18 pm
The Galaxy will still suck…with Beckham…and with Villaraigosa.
Go Chivas!
July 16th, 2007 at 4:31 pm
If I was a Galaxy fan, I would boo Antonio but this would make me actually like him more. I hate it when politicians are scared to have sport allegiances that are at odds with any of their constituents. Maybe because as a sports fan, I could never water down my obsession with the Suns and other sports teams. I also think people can take a step back from that stuff when voting. I could be wrong, but thankfully, the Suns are the only NBA team in AZ…
July 16th, 2007 at 9:00 pm
“So, why aren’t folks mad that this foreigner Beckham is taking a job an American can do, for less money even?”
are you kidding? Ummmmmm…because he came here legally. How about that for starters?
July 16th, 2007 at 9:31 pm
Okay, cool…I’ll remember that the next time Lou Dobbs and Pat Buchanan are railing against Indian software engineers on H1B Visas.
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