04-06-2017, 10:16 PM
If American politics had the claim to integrity that NCAA athletics or the Olympics had, then those who win with the aid of cheating would have their wins forfeited. In the Olympics, medalists discovered after the fact to have used performance-enhancing substances or to have interfered with the performance of competitors lose their medals and any recognition of their tainted achievements -- and may face consequences as being banned for life from Olympic and other competitions. The sports media comply, and the players and coaches involved in such nefarious deeds are ruined. Integrity of the game matters more. The athlete cannot claim that he did not know what was in the injection that he received.
The NCAA has far more experience with point-shaving scandals in basketball than it wishes... but corruption of the game for the gain of gamblers is assumed intolerable in college basketball and leads to the banning of players. A climate of corruption occurred at the University of Michigan, whose men's basketball team over several years had players ineligible to play collegiate ball because they had signed professional contracts with agents. Michigan fans may remember some remarkable seasons (1993 and 1996 through 1999) that culminated in tournament play. Because of the play of ineligible players, all but 1 of 113 wins in the regular seasons and the tournament wins (including those leading to the temporary win of the NCAA championship of 1997. The University of Michigan anticipated sanctions, perhaps saving themselves worse. See below in the citation of the Wikipedia article. Michigan fans of some seemingly-spectacular seasons remember what are now phantom wins.
Of course American politics can degenerate enough that they are all about power and economic gain for the Right People, everybody else getting to get vicarious delight in the indulgent opulence of elites who can treat non-elites as livestock at best and vermin at worst. Getting aid from the Kremlin in seizing power? We now recognize Bierut, Ulbricht, Gottwald, Rakosi, Gheorgiu-Dej, and Dimitroff, puppets of Stalin, as villains of history. To be sure any comparison of Putin to Stalin is hysterical, but a government that owes its power to support from a foreign power is suspect.
If we as Americans are fortunate we will be able to see President Trump and those who owe their political power, either in gaining or maintaining it, from a sordid deal with acrooked but well-meaning agent dictatorial regime hostile to democracy anywhere else as illegitimate. Maybe we will see the acts of such politicians as void, much like 112 wins in 1993 and 1996 through 1999 as well as all tournament wins on teams for which only the losses are now recognized.
Unfortunately for us the strange actions of President Trump and the attempt of Republicans to transform our republic into a pure plutocracy will be unpleasant memories for most of us.
The NCAA has far more experience with point-shaving scandals in basketball than it wishes... but corruption of the game for the gain of gamblers is assumed intolerable in college basketball and leads to the banning of players. A climate of corruption occurred at the University of Michigan, whose men's basketball team over several years had players ineligible to play collegiate ball because they had signed professional contracts with agents. Michigan fans may remember some remarkable seasons (1993 and 1996 through 1999) that culminated in tournament play. Because of the play of ineligible players, all but 1 of 113 wins in the regular seasons and the tournament wins (including those leading to the temporary win of the NCAA championship of 1997. The University of Michigan anticipated sanctions, perhaps saving themselves worse. See below in the citation of the Wikipedia article. Michigan fans of some seemingly-spectacular seasons remember what are now phantom wins.
Of course American politics can degenerate enough that they are all about power and economic gain for the Right People, everybody else getting to get vicarious delight in the indulgent opulence of elites who can treat non-elites as livestock at best and vermin at worst. Getting aid from the Kremlin in seizing power? We now recognize Bierut, Ulbricht, Gottwald, Rakosi, Gheorgiu-Dej, and Dimitroff, puppets of Stalin, as villains of history. To be sure any comparison of Putin to Stalin is hysterical, but a government that owes its power to support from a foreign power is suspect.
If we as Americans are fortunate we will be able to see President Trump and those who owe their political power, either in gaining or maintaining it, from a sordid deal with a
Unfortunately for us the strange actions of President Trump and the attempt of Republicans to transform our republic into a pure plutocracy will be unpleasant memories for most of us.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.