Sometimes it's better to light a flamethrower than curse the darkness

Like most things about the U.S. Republican party, this article about the intensity with which the congressional party are approaching the upcoming baseball gameagainst their Democrat counterparts is as weirdly fascinating as it is depressing.

After a litany of Republican failures this Congress (can't impeach Biden, can't antagonize his son effectively, can't correctly count their votes about the impeachment of the Secretary of Homeland Security, their committees are just blocking bills from reaching the House floor...) the article says:

As if stealing advice from the 12-step program, Republicans are now only seeking to control the things they can control. And Democrats are fully aware that means the GOP is gunning for them at Nationals Park on Wednesday.

The Republican practice sessions have been intense and very early in the mornings. The Democrats are much more laid-back about theirs.

The Republicans taking part also seem much more intense. Their coach, Rep. Roger Williams, says:

“It’s a big rivalry. Everybody says [the game is] bipartisan; it’s not really bipartisan. And with all the stuff that’s happening, this is another way to get after each other.”

"It's not really bipartisan" is the Republicans' approach to governing as well as the baseball game. Another quote from him seems equally revealing of wider patterns:

“I tell people, go back to your high school days, when you played your biggest rivalry in football. All you thought about was that, right? At school, you didn’t do your homework, you didn’t study. You’re ready to get out there.”

Republicans certainly haven't been "doing their homework," and do seem to have gone to schools like mine, where sports were the priority and excuses would always be made for the athletes who most successfully propagated their toxic masculinity.

Meanwhile, on the other side:

“They’re definitely a lot better at baseball than they are at governing,” says Rep. Jared Huffman, a former player who’s now the Democrats’ first-base coach. (Huffman said he gave up playing because the early morning practices were too much.)

Anyway, even if you don't care about baseball or U.S. politics, here's a couple of sentences that made me laugh and I hope you like them too.

In the past, opposition researchers have been dispatched to the game to get footage of certain candidates wearing baseball pants. (It’s almost impossible for anyone over the age of 40 to look good in baseball pants; it’s actually impossible to look good in baseball pants if you’ve authored a bill that has become a law.)