The Southern Male Democrat

Thousands of fans began streaming into the stadium hours ahead of the main event, with wild-eyed anticipation of what was to come. As with most events of this magnitude, the atmosphere was electric. Sidewalk vendors hawked buttons, t-shirts, pennants, hats, calendars - every type of memorabilia imaginable was on display. For those who wanted to pay more money, the “official” merchandise was on sale inside of the stadium gates and the lines went eight people deep by each souvenir stand.

After having my ticket scanned and making my way through security, the next stop was for stadium junk food. Sadly, this venue didn’t offer anything particularly remarkable the way that Wrigley Field does. A processed hotdog or nachos just didn’t appeal to me, so I just got a soda and made my way to the field level seats. The seats were amazing, we were right by the field and could see the players close up. Pre-game warm ups were a treat as we to to see several of our favorite players getting both themselves and the crowd ready for the main event. As with any event of this size, the music was cranked up several times and the fans got on their feet and danced. Finally, it was time for the starting line ups and when the team captain took the field, 80,000 people went absolutely beserk. All I could see were flags and pennants waving everywhere and being on the field level, the wall of sound surrounded me. I could barely hear myself think. A friend who sat in the pressbox later told me that when the team captain walked out, he could feel the stadium literally shake from all the noise.

This may sound like I am describing another Saturday night in any number of college football stadiums across the country. In fact, I am describing the final night of the Democratic National Convention at Invesco Field in Denver.

The lack of blogging the last week was directly related to the fact that I was a delegate to the DNC. Mrs. SMD and I had the pleasure of attending and truly had a blast. Having been to a few of these conventions, I knew there would be little time for sharing my exploits on the web. Once the convention let out each night, it was on to the various after parties all over Denver. When you crawl in bed at 2am and then spend another half hour watching the coverage, that alarm clock going off at 7am is not exactly a welcomed awakening.

As to be expected, there was wall to wall coverage of last week all over the web. There’s no point in my blogging about how great Obama’s speech was, how overblown the “will the Clintons get onboard” question was, etc. What did strike me was how much the whole thing is like a sporting event and the partisans are there to cheer on our favorite “team.”

In terms of regular operating procedures, there is little difference in the fact that I am involved in the Democratic Party and that I am an NC State fan. I indulge in both activities by going to events featuring large masses of people. To attend these events, I have used money or time or relationships (and believe me, all three of those factors apply to both!) to get admission into these events. While attending them, the social norm is adorn yourself with paraphernalia in support of the team or candidate. There is even somewhat of a “uniform” expcted at each. For the ballgames - it’s a golf shirt, khakis and cap. For the political rally - it’s a dark suit, shirt and tie.

When the “game” begins, we cheer loudly for our team. Any reference to the other team is met with all wall of boos and hisses. We will cheer for anyone associated with our team. We especially love it when people from the other team come over to our side. Most NC State fans could care less than the Director of the Wolfpack Club is a UNC-CH graduate (No, I didn’t make that up.) just like the Republicans are going to give Sen. Joe Lieberman a raucous welcome when he addresses the Republican National Convention this week, even though he’s got a 90% liberal voting record and only agrees with them on Iraq.

Then, when the game is over, we go back home and engage our neighbors in good natured, but pointed taunting and teasing about how their team is doing. We defend our team to the death and will rarely admit to a flaw in our own team, without first making a comparison to a similiar flaw in the other team.

The only difference is that our children’s futures will not be affected by the outcome of the ballgame (though I suppose that more than a few children have been born as the result of post-game euphoria after a big win in sports).  Our children are affected by the political choices we make. It’s a little odd that we put the same type of energy into the two.

But you should’ve seen my jump up and high five my buddy Thursday night when Senator Obama walked on the field. You would have thought that I was watching Philip Rivers beat UNC-CH. Oh well, at least I had great seats!