Loyalty
It’s interesting how loyalties can change with the snap of a finger.
For 15 years, Minnesota Vikings fans hated Brett Favre, the quarterback for the Green Bay Packers, their arch rival. They couldn’t think of a kind thing to say about him. But when he then slipped on a purple and gold jersey for his final two seasons in the NFL, all that changed and they begged him to come back for just one more season.
Occasionally politicians will flip parties, more often lately from Democrat to Republican. These days with margins being so tight nationally and in many states, the old enemy becomes the new friend quickly…while the jilted party acts like they never wanted the person in their ranks anyway.
Witness Elon Musk, the world’s richest man. For decades he was the hero of the political left due to his electric vehicles, development of PayPal, and private efforts on space travel. He was a visionary, a man of the world, the poster child by a global society.
But the moment he professed political allegiance to Donald Trump, he became the skunk at the picnic to those who used to extol his virtues.
Given the lack of tolerance on all sides these days, that was not a surprise. But the acts of violence, destruction of property, deepness of the hatred—that’s a new low.
Are his electric vehicles no longer the answer to the problem? If they were a good idea before, why not now? And if you destroy a Tesla…the owner’s insurance will simply buy that person a new one, leading to Tesla profits to increase. So how exactly did you hurt that business? And political officials calling for Musk or anyone to be “taken down” as a birthday gift is wholly repulsive.
Changing jerseys and playing for the other team can lead to fan disappointment. But it should never lead to what we’re seeing now.
