Winning and Losing in Washington D.C.
I've never been a very competitive person. I usually prefer trying and learning, as opposed to straight winning and losing. But there's a great joy to be had in a game with clear results, and an outcome relatively contained to the forces on the field. That’s what makes it a “game.” No one dies when a football team loses. No one gets deported when a football team wins. The satisfaction of finality without the stress of lasting consequence.
There’s been a lot of winning and losing in Washington, DC already this year. There’s a renewed Presidential administration in town, already bucking around like a bull in a china shop. There’s already been a public tragedy, a devastating loss of life in the community. And then, there’s been the football team - formerly the Redskins, the Washington Football Team, and now The Commanders - who were one win away from playing in the Super Bowl.
It had been 31 years since the football team made it to a Conference championship, and now there they were again, helmed by a skinny kid from California named Jayden who just couldn't stop winning. Thirty-one years into the future, how will we look back on January 2025? The way Jayden kept winning, he’s sure to be remembered in 2056; and I hope that Washington as we know it will also still exist then, but the judgement of a new administration hell-bent on gutting the Federal workforce, and the devastating localized impact that could have on our community, leave the certainty of a future DMV that looks like this one in question.
One of the great lessons of this football team's Cinderella run has been that leadership at the top matters. It turns out that decades of inflated self-confidence coupled with total authority and questionable ethics crept its way through an entire organization, promoting failure at every level during the previous ownership’s tenure. But - cut the head off of that, take that poisoned leadership away, and instantly everything can change. Losing can turn to winning.
As for the other "winners" in Washington so far this year - take note that winning doesn't always equate to actual success. How one responds to a win might be as important as the win itself. Dan Snyder “won” the transaction, when he bought the football team - but that sure as hell didn't turn into success.
Our system of governance was designed such that a single leader can’t “win” for too long. We hope, now, that system holds true - because it’s clear that the kind of leadership that ruined a football franchise for the better part of a generation can happen anywhere. And away from a football field, winning and losing sure does have consequences.
When people at the top care for no opinions but their own, don’t try to learn from their mistakes, and disregard the pleas of the people they exploit from their position of power - it all turns to shit.
We are a hopeful species. We want to believe that even when buried, if we gain a few inches, we can pull up from a deep grave. That hope cuts both ways. Sometimes it's only letting the failure become all-consuming that offers an out - when it becomes so prevalent, even to those who are least affected by it, that they can no longer ignore its effects - that’s when there's hope for change. It's a dark road to get to that exit, but sometimes, there's no other way.