The Dilemma of Hating

Coming up on the Haters Ball, I decided to do some research. I thought I’d go to the original source material for inspiration on how best to hate on all the Yankee fans. What could I do to make the Ball more enjoyable for those of us who took such pleasure from the Yankees’ failure to reach the post-season for the first time since the mid-nineties? So I watched, for the umpteenth time, that episode of The Chapelle Show that featured The Player Haters Ball. “What can I say about your suit that hasn’t already been said about Afghanistan?” (John's favorite insult)

But then, in the midst of my field work, Barack got elected, and now suddenly, it’s no longer about hating. Hating is out; it’s passé. Worse, it’s bad for the country. Instead, now it’s all about the love, about bringing us all together – old and young, rich and poor, blue states and red states, black and white and yellow and brown. But RedSox and Yankees? Has it really come to that? How far are we expected to go with all this national reconciliation?

I read that Barack is a White Sox fan. Is he going to throw out the first pitch next spring for the Cubs? And really, do Cubs fans and White Sox fans hate the way we hate in the AL East? I have heard that, despite their long-standing history as baseball’s lovable losers, the Cubs are intensely disliked by many National League fans. Does that antipathy extend to the intra-city rivalry? And if so, how does Barack intend to heal that divide? And if he can’t bring the fans of his own home town together, why should we in the Nation have any second thoughts about our enduring and passionate hatred of anything pinstripe related?

This is really a moral dilemma, one for which I have no answer at present. It’s been so easy to hate in the recent past. Think about how ardently and obsessively the Republicans hated on Bill and Hillary all through the nineties. How they bothered to impeach their own president, and damage their country’s standing, all because Bill fooled around with Monica, and misused a cigar. And then, to return the favor, think of how relentlessly the Democrats have hated on Bush ever since 2000. In this climate of national hating, it only seemed right that we in the Nation hated on our rivals from New York and vice versa. But if Barack alters the political landscape, and changes the tenor of our national dialogue, can we continue in our hateful ways?

Maybe this is all wrong. Maybe I’m just deluded by the gracious and conciliatory speech McCain delivered the other night. Maybe a month from now, even before Barack is sworn in, Republican haters will forget all about that message of national unity, and return to their former practices. They’ll sharpen their tongues and fill the airwaves with talk show venom. And while I hardly look forward to that, at least it will free us from any sense of guilt over our own bad selves, and allow all of us, in the Nation, and in the Evil Empire, to return once more to unabashedly hating on our rivals. As Yogi would say, “It’s déjà vu all over again.”