Seventeen years ago, NFL kicker Jay Feely said he’d like to be the President. He has now taken the first tangible step in an industry chock full of folks who aspire to run the whole show.
Via Terry Collins of USA Today, the former kicker and CBS broadcaster has won the Republican primary for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Feely hopes to replace Republican David Schweikert in Arizona’s District 1, which includes the Phoenix area.
Feely initially filed to run in District 5. After President Trump endorsed another candidate for the seat, Feely switched to District 1. A close race is expected in November.
Contributors to Feely’s campaign included Commissioner Roger Goodell, Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill, Patriots owner Robert Kraft, Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, Falcons owner Arthur Blank, Browns owner Jimmy Haslam, former CBS colleague Jim Nantz, Giants coach John Harbaugh, former NFL quarterback Mark Sanchez, and NBA legend and broadcaster Charles Barkley.
“When I chose to walk away from my NFL broadcasting career, keeping the Republican majority was the primary focus,” Feely said on Twitter. “We must maintain a GOP majority to ensure lower costs for Arizona’s families, safety in our neighborhoods, and the preservation of the American Dream.”
Feely is allowed to believe whatever he chooses, but the whole left-vs.-right as an existential question is exhausting, regardless of which side it comes from. That kind of rhetoric makes it even harder for Americans to come together and work for the common good, regardless of their positions on the various issues.
Of course, a two-party system is part of the problem. Folks who cast ballots based on one or two issues often have to hold their noses as to the various planks in the platform about which they don’t care — or with which they flat-out disagree. Or, sometimes, they allow themselves to care so deeply about one or two issues that they’ll vote against their interests on other issues in the name of those one or two things, sometimes when those one or two things don’t really matter as much as they’re led to believe they do.
The future of the country doesn’t hinge on a Republican majority in Congress. It doesn’t hinge on a Democratic majority in Congress. It hinges on people of goodwill deciding not to treat politics as a way to fulfill personal ambitions but as a way to put the interests of the people first — and to use their positions to harmonize, not demonize.
