Stop hitting yourself!

I don't know if this is a memory of actual events or a daydream I had once, but I have told it as a memory usually to illustrate a point.  So, here goes.

In high school I played football for a couple of years.  (Freshman and Sophomore years)  In Jr. high school I was on the bigger side of a lot of my peers so I ended up playing on the offensive line with some time as a linebacker as well.  For those not that familiar with American football, the object of the game is for someone on your team to run the ball to the other end of the field or to throw the ball to a teammate down at the other end of the field with the ultimate goal of getting the ball across the end line into one of the areas on either end of the field called the End Zone.  The other team is doing everything they can within the rules of the game to prevent you from doing that.  The key player on the offensive side of the ball is called the quarterback.  He takes the ball passed from between the legs of one of his teammates called the center from between the centers legs then he can choose to either give the ball to someone else to run, run the ball himself, or throw the ball to one of his teammates after they run down the field.  This is a very simple explanation of what is actually a very complicated game with a lot of rules governing how the teams can move the ball down field, but that is the general idea.

The quarterback's job is very important and he can be very autonomous on the field and can really run the game from his position.  Coaches usually send plays in with substituting players which the quarterback then relays to the rest of the team on the field but he can also "call an audible" if he recognizes a defensive formation that would be particularly difficult to get success with based on the play the coaches wanted him to run.  Because of this, the quarterback is usually seen as the hero on the field.  And for that reason many quarterbacks get quite an inflated view of themselves in relation to the rest of the team.  But, more than any other sport I have played football is the most dependent on good team play to be successful.  And the time it takes for a quarterback to get the ball, look down field, find a player to throw the ball to or decide to hand the ball off or run the ball himself is extended by players like me.  The big guys on the line who put our bodies between our quarterback and the defensive players who are trying to get to him to tackle him to the ground before he has a chance to make one of those decisions. 

One day during a practice game (called a scrimmage) our offensive line coach took us aside, apart from the receivers, running backs and quarterback (QB) and let us know that he felt like the QB was getting a bit of a big head and not really appreciating the work we were doing to keep him safe.  He said he worked it out with the defensive line coach that on the next play, we (the offensive line) were just going to step aside and let the defense come through untouched.  The defense was instructed not to hurt our starting QB but to let him know they could have.  So, we did, and they did, and then our QB knew why he was able to do so many things back there to be the hero.

Wait…this is a political blog, right?  Yes.  It is.

I find myself on the horns of a dilemma.  Like in my example above, I want the QB to get cut down to size, but I don't want him to get hurt and I don't want my team to lose.  But the folks who were told that Trump was going to get rid of ObamaCare and voted for him anyway need to understand that votes matter.  And I feel like I want those people to feel the pain of their own stupid decisions.  But at the same time, I really don't want anyone to die over it.  I don't want it to cause people to go into bankruptcy.  And I don't want it to affect my health insurance coverage because we have to pay for all those people visiting the emergency rooms.  There is a story out today about a woman who voted for Trump only to find that her house is likely going to be on the Mexican side of border and therefor will be on the Mexican side of the wall.  How am I not supposed to laugh at that?  If I see someone punching themselves in the face repeatedly it's gonna be funny at first, but at some point it's gonna be tragic too.