Guy Ciarrocchi: I miss fighting about stadiums
One of my nieces recently asked me what I thought about the Sixers’ plans to build a stadium in Center City. She’s old enough to know that “Uncle Guy” talks about and writes about issues and elections. She seemed genuinely curious, not just polite.
I paused. Then, I paused some more…as I thought about those issues that I’ve seen in passing in the news. She seemed puzzled at my delay. I felt bad that I didn’t have an insightful observation to evoke a reply from her.
Then, it hit me. I rarely think about such things. Not because I now live in Paoli and not South Philly. And not because I bleed Phillies Red and Eagles Green rather than Sixers’ Red, White and Blue.
It’s because when I think about Center City or Philadelphia, I’m almost always thinking about the crime, the empty storefronts, and the failed schools. Since 2020, my wife and I don’t really go to Philly to eat or see a show — despite the fact that we grew up in Philly. Even when I was CEO of the Chester County Chamber, I used to joke that I was a “bad CEO” — we usually ate on Passyunk Avenue not Lancaster Avenue.
I do think about the empty storefronts and the reduced foot traffic. All the businesses that were lost due to lockdowns, and mandates that lasted too long, were too restrictive and were pulled back too slowly. I think about the kids that cannot read, and their moms afraid to let them go out to play. All of this has been compounded by Larry Krasner, who is most passionate about keeping crooks out of jail.
I apologize, but I just don’t have the bandwidth to think about a basketball arena. Philadelphia is on fire. I no longer can think about what color uniform the rescue workers should wear.
If you’re a passionate Sixers fan, a family running a Chinatown restaurant, or a taxpayer who fears our tax dollars might either be used to subsidize this new complex, I truly understand why you care. With all due respect to them, I’m not sure many of us can focus on those “small” things anymore.
In a much bigger sense, this reflects the revolutionary change in the politics of our nation.
As has been said, politics had been like a football game: played between the 40-yard lines. The ball stayed more or less in about 20 yards of the 120 yard field (including the end zones). For about the last 15 years — sorry, it didn’t start in 2016 — we now fight end zone to end zone, a full 120 yards. Heck, I’d point out that one team even likes to run up into the stands and yell at the fans for the other team.
In another context, last month the legacy media made a big deal of a group of “Republican leaders” announcing that they were supporting Harris, not Trump.
(I know we’re in an era where almost everyone is allowed to “self-identify,” but if you call yourself a “Republican” leader and you never have or will vote for Trump, and you can’t point to one major Republican who you supported in the last decade or more, are you really a Republican leader? Even a Republican?)
One such “leader” — whom I’ve known since 1992 — was quoted as saying: “When the Harris team wins…we can joyfully return to arguing over marginal tax rates and…all the other issues…”
To which I say: Seriously?!
He’s making the argument that if Harris wins we can all go back to arguing about the Sixers’ stadium and tax rates, etc. There are so many ways in which my friend is wrong. I’ll highlight just two.
First, the national debate in the economy is no longer about tax rates anymore. Why? Because the Democrat Party has been captured by people who openly talk about socialism, rejecting the obvious benefits of capitalism, and talk about putting certain business leaders in jail or out of business.
The debate isn’t whether “the rich” ought to pay 30, 40 or 70 percent in taxes. It’s whether America should tolerate Americans becoming “rich.” It’s about whether certain business leaders ought to be jailed or ruined if they don’t comply with left-wing ideology.
Tax rate schmax rate!
Second, elites can argue chicken or egg all day: Did Trump create populism, or is he the leader of citizens who had those feelings and were searching for a leader? I’m a firm believer in the latter. Regardless, Trump could jump aboard SpaceX and go to Mars, but conservative populism would still be here.
Why? First because our concerns won’t go away — we will still need and support citizen, civic, and political leaders.
Second, the leaders of the Democratic Party would have to apologize for supporting mega, gut-wrenching “120 yard issues” — opposing what used to be bi-partisan, common sense. These include keeping the border open, imposing universal lockdown, mask and vaccine mandates, threatening to defund the police, supporting no cash bail, setting “acceptable limits” for shoplifting, tolerating anti-Semitism, devaluing excellence in our schools, encouraging personal sex conversations between teachers and middle schoolers, defending men beating up women in sports, suggesting that socialism is better than capitalism, blocking parents from having a say in their kids’ education, advocating for a fracking ban, promoting climate crisis hysteria, dividing our children into victims and oppressors, promoting abortion on demand and without apology up through birth, stopping America from being energy independent, and suggesting that America ought to apologize to the world.
Sorry, the genie is out of the bottle, Trump or no Trump.
So, my dear niece, as your loving uncle and a devoted citizen, if you feel passionately about the stadium, I encourage you to do all you can to promote your side. Please understand that those who disagree are (probably) not evil and don’t need to be destroyed.
And, yes, I do look forward to the day when we can discuss issues like this — and I might just learn a thing or two from you.
Guy Ciarrocchi is a Senior Fellow with the Commonwealth Foundation. He writes for Broad + Liberty and RealClear Pennsylvania. Follow Guy @PaSuburbsGuy.
“To which I say: Seriously?!”
Yes seriously. You still don’t get it do you? At least the Republican Leaders your are complaining about have the gall to stand up to what is a terrible person running at the top of the Republican ticket. Using your logic (or lack thereof really) if Hitler himself was at the top of the R party you would vote for him just because he’s and R and that’s what any good card carrying R should do.
You don’t actually consider the person which is just wrong and naive. To think that your niece values your opinion is scary and I do hope you can learn from her. I’m sure she knows who is a good person and who is not. The fact that you would use her in another one of your rants to give you a semblance of humanity is wrong.
Look. I’m not a fan of Guy’s. He’s too much on the economic side than on the ideological side. But, I find myself defending him here.
You write, “To which I say: Seriously?!” You sound like an educated 55+ educated White woman who resents that she missed Woodstock and now must use Alinsky’s rules for radicals to ridicule someone. It’s like the voice affectation broke college girls with SATs of 850 use at State schools to make you think they should be at Bryn Mawr.
You write, “…terrible person running at the top of the Republican ticket” OK. OK we get it. How about your candidate who will probably lose the election because she wouldn’t hire a Pennsylvania Jew for her running mate? Even David Brooks admits Kamala might lose because of her decision on the Shapiro Question:
“Pennsylvania was the most important state in this election, the hinge around which all sorts of election scenarios pivoted. In hindsight, Harris’ decision not to select Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania as her running mate looked like a terrible act of overconfidence. But Shapiro was perceived as a moderate. The progressive wing lobbied against him. So Harris went with a guy who helped her win a state she was always going to win anyway.”
Of course, no mediocre critique is complete without an allusion to Hitler. For Christsake, try seeing the world through a lens other than the 1939 Lens. Putin’s no Hitler and neither is Trump.
On card-carrying… What’s on any good card carrying Democrat’s card? Do you think you’ll ever be able to present a presidential ticket to America that doesn’t half-way look marginalized?
Finally, you write, “To think that your niece values your opinion is scary and I do hope you can learn from her. I’m sure she knows who is a good person and who is not. The fact that you would use her in another one of your rants to give you a semblance of humanity is wrong.” To which I say, “Seriously?” I’ll tell what is seriously wrong… weaponizing Guy’s niece.