Volume CXXXIII, Number 18 March 1, 2002 f

The Red Sox, hip hop, and politics
CRAIG GIAMMONA

Baseball is nearly upon us, and with the announcement (still pending at the time this column was written) that the bumbling Dan Duquette will be replaced as general manager, it appears as if the Red Sox are moving in the right direction just as dawn begins to break on the 2002 season.

Is this yet another sign that anything is possible in the world of sports? Is this year for the Red Sox?

As much as I hope so, probably not. In fact, this year's World Series will likely feature the Yankees and the Mets, the two teams with lucrative television contracts and money to spend on high-priced talent and the two teams that the Red Sox can't beat.

As I have said, baseball is a manifestation of a free market system, and teams with money are able to obtain and consolidate power the way that large successful companies normally do, provided they make the right personnel decisions. This doesn't guarantee perennial championships, but you'd have to be crazy to argue that it does not aversely affect competition.
Losing the hope that "anything can happen" in sports is a scary thought. Hope and the illusion of gritty, hard-working underdogs beating heavily-favored hegemons are the reasons that many turn to sports as a source of entertainment. It's why everyone loves March Madness, or footage of the 1980 "miracle on ice."

However, the reality is that the dream of Horatio Algers is largely dead in baseball. The same could be said of politics, especially regarding the ability of alternate parties to obtain national prominence.

Recently I've found myself lamenting the death of many illusions that I have always held dear to my heart: the death of my belief that "anything" can happen in baseball, the death of God, the death of the illusion that I am a self-respecting individual, and the death of the notion that a third party will ever gain national prominence and bring some semblance of variety to our American democracy.

As media regulations continue to be relaxed and the door of corporate conglomeration is kicked further open, media will only become more tied to the same big-money corporate interests that plague politics. The need for politicians to sell themselves to voters the same way that soda and beer companies sell their products to consumers will only be proliferated.

The business of politics is growing, and the Democratic and Republican duopoly will only increase its stranglehold on American democracy. There has been much talk recently about the Bush administration's efforts to help elect a Republican governor of California. The administration's belief is that even if California's electoral votes go to the Democratic candidate in the 2004 election, a Republican governor will force the Democrats to spend resources to win the state.

Maybe this doesn't strike anyone as wrong, or even interesting, but I think it's a clear indication that business thought and ethics have overtaken politics. What I'm primarily concerned with is a way for the Green Party to gain national prominence and win some seats in Congress and the Senate. I'm not a Carhart-wearing treehugger, but I would like to see a viable third party enter into the political spectrum, and the Green Party seems to be the most likely candidate.

Our two-party system is certainly not the norm in the world. Most European countries feature several varied political parties, some of which are forced to form coalition governments. In fact, in many European countries, party diversity is institutionalized through proportional representation.

Our system does not feature these safeguards. We are essentially dealing with a completely free market. The parties with money are able to buy advertising and fund expensive campaigns with budgets that dwarf other parties.

For this reason, I think the Green Party should make an allegiance with hip-hop music and use charismatic rappers and their large bank accounts to sell the Greens' political cause to the American people. Sports culture normally follows hip-hop culture, and if enough celebrities starting pumping the Green Party, it would begin to grow in popularity and prominence.

Hip hop's rebellious anti-establishment culture would mesh well with the Green Party, which should also begin to champion drug policy reform. Am I wrong in thinking that there are a lot of Americans, especially young people, who are willing to listen to politicians who propose reasonable drug policies?

Aside from drug policy reform, the Green Party could support sweeping electoral reforms with a focus on minority disenfranchisement. The statistics concerning the likelihood of having ballots for black voters in Florida disqualified versus white voters are nauseating. I have spent many nights crying myself to sleep unable to shake the image on Katherine Harris looming in my head.

Again, I think that a lot of Americans, especially young people, are ready to listen to different party candidates and think outside the limits of the two mainstream parties. While these subversive views would alienate corporate interests, they could be parlayed into another positive aspect: the removal of corporate money from politics.

This proposal may seem outlandish, but it could work. In the process I think it could serve to reinvigorate hip hop-an industry I feel is losing some momentum. The 1990s were rap's golden age. Starting with Illmatic in 1991, classic rap albums poured out during the early and mid-90s. Now rap is floundering a bit, and finds itself in need of a new angle or a new visionary. I think that angle is politics, and should include a full frontal assault on the national political scene with common sense issues on the platform.