Participation in youth football is down. As economic ignoramus David Leonhardt of the New York Times explained yesterday at the paper's "The Upshot" blog, this is particularly pronounced in "the highly educated Democratic-leaning areas of major metropolitan areas."
Yesterday, as he was interviewing Leonhardt about his post on NPR's "The Takeaway" program, John Hockenberry asked, "Are you suggesting that Republicans are pro-concussion?" Audio follows the jump:
In the audio, which does not to have a timing indicator and which will open in a separate tab or window when clicking on Hockenberry's picture, readers will hear Hockenberry ask his ignorant question 1:55 in. They will then notice a bit of hesitation on Leonhardt's part, which to me betrays a temptation to provide a "yes" answer:
Transcript, from the beginning to that point, dripping with arrogance, smugness, and contempt (bolds are mine):
JOHN HOCKENBERRY: From Bach to something quite different. In January, President Obama told the New Yorker's David Remnick that if he had a son, he would not let him play pro football. Well, is that terribly controversial? But those comments, along with the President calling on the Redskins to change their name, have riled up Rush Limbaugh, the perrennially riled up, and Mark Levin, the perrennially riled up, and also Glenn Beck, who also see pro football as a red-state sport in need of defending from a Democratic president.
But a look at the numbers shows concern among college-educated liberals regarding the dangers of playing football. "The Upshot," a New York Times politics and policy website, found that the number of boys playing football in high school has declined 15 percent in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and those are two states President Obama won in the past two elections.
David Leonhardt is editor of "The Upshot," and joins us from right here in New York. Is there a divide here in America, or is this Limbaughean showbiz?
DAVID LEONHARDT: There is a divide. Rush is right, at least about some aspect of this.
There isn't a divide about watching football. Blue America and Red America are both watching football in enormous numbers. There's no sign that the popularity of the game as a form of entertainment is shrinking.
But it's clear that Blue America, and particularly college-educated Blue America, in many of the big metropolitan areas across the country, is getting much less comfortable with the idea of letting their kids play. So you mentioned Minnesota and Wisconsin. High school participation in football is also falling in California, in New York, in Maryland, and in Massachusetts. And when you line up all the states and look at them, you see a pretty clear pattern. High school participation this calling more in blue states than in red states.
HOCKENBERRY: Now David, you sound very reasonable. Don't sound even remotely like Glenn Beck, who said that the president is now officially a girl for what he told David Remnick. But, are you suggesting that Republicans are pro-concussion?
LEONHARDT (after a bit of hesitation): I am not. I think it's interesting to see, if you — we asked the Rand Corporation to do a poll on this. And what they found is that there's only one group that is notably less comfortable. And it's Obama voters, which is to say Democratic voters —
HOCKENBERRY: Right.
LEONHARDT: — with college degrees. Democratic voters without college degrees look a lot like Republican voters with or without college degrees in terms of their level of comfort with football, which is less than with other sports, but a lot more than liberal eggheads, if you will.
And I think there's, there's sort of a classic pattern here. There are a lot of public safety issues, whether it's smoking, whether it's seatbelts, that start in a certain corner of society — more liberal, more educated corner of society. And if the science continues to show that this is a real public health issue, um, it goes mainstream. ...
Commenters should have fun unpacking the historical revisionism Leonhardt just expressed, his failure to comment on the hypocrisy of being a just-as-dedicated fan of a supposedly unsafe, dangerous sport while rooting on its teams, and a number of other factors which may be influencing football participation. Here's one: As public schools continue to deteriorate, Obama-Democrat liberals are more and more keeping their kids out of public schools and sending them to private schools, some of which never have had football teams.
Unsurprisingly, the program's post on the interview doesn't include Hockenberry's tasteless, hateful question.
Rush Limbaugh had a few choice words on the topic yesterday, summarizing the liberals' position thusly:
"We'll go to the Colosseum, but the Christians will be given to the lions, not our kids. We'll watch the Christians being given to the lions, but our children will not. Our children will remain in the citadels of sophistication and education." Did you hear this? Did you? (NPR impression) "Democrat voters without college degrees, they look a lot like Republican voters -- with our without college degrees -- in terms of their level of comfort with football."
Does anyone think highbrow eyebrows might have been raised if Hockenberry had instead asked, "Does this mean that Democrats are anti-teamwork, pro-selfishness, and no better than the types of people who watch NASCAR races in the hope of seeing wrecks?"
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
