Cam and the Donald: Separated at Birth?

Well, probably not.  Factors like age, race, profession, skills, background, geography, wealth (although that may not be all that disparate) are so radically different that any equation between Cam Newton and Donald Trump seems downright silly.  And yet . . .

To backtrack: as those of you who’ve read my 2015 blogs know, I’ve written a lot about politics.  And therefore, about Donald Trump (the biggest, most riveting, and, to me, most distressing political story in this political cycle).  I’ve compared him to everyone from Benito Mussolini to Miley Cyrus.  I’ve tried to analyze his appeal.  And, recently, I’ve given up. 

What more is there to say?  Either the remnants of the Republican establishment will figure out a way to stop his nomination or they won’t.  Anything outrageous that Trump bellows is no longer news, as it never negatively affects his poll numbers.  None of his challengers, evidently, is sane or strong enough to stop him. 

So I’ve not been moved to write anything more about Donald Trump.  Which means that I haven’t been able to write about this year’s politics, as he’s still the fulcrum of any political discussion.  In other words, I’ve had zero-zilch new ideas about Trump’s appeal.  My bad.  And my handy explanation for blogosphere silence (which of course has additional sources, like the busyness of the holidays and general scrivener sloth).

Enter the NFL playoffs.  A more fun diversion than politics, at least for a while – particularly because I had two favorite teams in contention, my birth-State team (Green Bay Packers) and my now-live-here team (Carolina Panthers).  The Panthers have prevailed and will be in the Super Bowl.  Hooray, and party on.

Cruising sports sites and listening to ‘Mike & Mike in the Morning,‘ I’ve become interested in the backlash against the Panther’s exceptional quarterback, Cam Newton.  “He’s arrogant.”  “ He’s disrespectful.”  (This latter charge stems largely from the bogus reports surrounding his batting away of the twelfth-man Seahawks ‘flag’ that was tossed in his face and has culminated in a self-promoting petition to ban Newton from appearing again in the Seattle stadium.)  “He’s neglecting the children on the second row to whom he doesn’t give footballs after a touchdown” (oh pleeeeeze).

The not-so-hidden objection to Cam Newton, it seems to me, is he’s a supremely talented Black quarterback who is not ‘properly’ deferential to the overwhelmingly White male powers-that-be who’ve dominated professional football forever.  And/or who doesn’t demonstrate the stoically bland ‘leadership’ qualities equated for decades to the (White) quarterback position. Instead, Newton’s enjoying his accomplishments, and those of his excellent team, on his own terms.  Dancing!  Posing for pictures!  Distributing footballs to children!  Inspiring his team, and its fans, to revel in and build upon success!

What Cam Newton embodies is absolute joy at succeeding at the game.  In his case, it’s professional (before that, for him, college) football.  He’s really, really good at the game he plays, and he doesn’t hide the pleasure it gives him.  That joy is infectious (unless you’re a zipped-up partisan of another football team).  It’s also (to employ an over-used buzz word) aspirational.  Wouldn’t we all want to be so good at what we do that we can celebrate our accomplishments, and those of the people who’ve helped us achieve them, with full-throttle happiness?

Now, why does Cam Newton make me think of Donald Trump? 

What I hadn’t considered, until this past weekend watching the Panthers pulverize the Cardinals, was that Trump exhibits the same joy in winning his game-of-choice as does Cam Newton.  A similar swagger.  A similar ‘I’m winning, so deal with it’ attitude.  A similar invitation to join the winning team, of which he’s the star.

And another similarity, which became clear only after Trump’s recent and brilliant ‘to-hell-with-the-debate-I’m-starting-a-different-game’ maneuver: Donald Trump is flexible.  Versatile.  He plays many roles, switching them at a drop of a hat or a slip of the tongue.  So far, he’s able to exploit almost any situation, turning it to his advantage. His conventional-wisdom-breaking nimbleness has flummoxed his political opponents and professional pundits alike.  Like Cam Newton, who—depending on the game situation—can be quarterback, wide receiver, running back, and probably punter and defensive tackle. 

Football is a game of positions: specific skills are honed for specific roles (kickers, offensive linemen, receivers, etc. etc.). Cam Newton shatters these boundaries—and in so doing, is shattering lingering prejudice about Black quarterbacks.  Not very long ago, Black quarterbacks were either non-existent or a rarity (a rarity judged harshly – see Jimmy the Greek or Warren Moon’s early exile to the CFL), even as the NFL became more and more dominated by Black players in most other positions. 

In a roughly analogous manner, Donald Trump is shattering the boundaries between ‘professional politicians’ and ‘businessmen,’ between party purists and party players, even between the serious business of governing and the not-so-serious business of entertainment. 

The point here is a simple one.  Both Cam Newton and Donald Trump are mold-breakers.  Exuberant, successful (so far), and in-your-face mold-breakers.  I didn’t see this aspect of Trump’s appeal until last weekend’s Panthers’ domination of the Cardinals (and I will resist comparing Carson Palmer to Jeb! Bush).

 

That said, I’m all in for Cam Newton.  I’m all out for Donald Trump: out of patience, out of outrage, and probably out of anything more to say.  Sports and politics may have similarities—the latter becoming increasingly like the former as a series of reality-TV cage matches.  But their differences, and those of their current headliners, should be vastly more important. 

For one thing, Cam seems to be a genuinely good guy, a young man who has matured (as young people are wont to do) into responsible—and in his case, exemplary (see all his community outreach initiatives)—adulthood.  In contrast, the Donald seems to be a toxic narcissist who has become more self-absorbedly juvenile as he’s aged. 

For another thing, Cam Newton’s Panthers’ winning or losing the Super Bowl will not have much impact on the nation or the world (apart from further discrediting lingering racist ideas about who’s genetically disqualified from sports leadership positions).  Donald Trump’s partisans (and Trump’s own protean media-savviness) propelling the Apprentice-meister into becoming the actual Republican Presidential nominee would have a huuuuge national and global impact. 

One that I fear would be disastrous. Which is why their strategic and, yes, flexible-talent similarities are interesting, perhaps illustrative, but no more than that.  Cam Newton and Donald Trump were separated at birth by a host of factors: not the least of which is that one seems to have imbued with common decency and fellow-feeling, whereas the other . . . not so much, or not at all.