How the DNC & USSF are similar.

Soccer is always a reflection of culture and politics. The US is not an exception to this rule.

There is a paradigm shift going on in America. Among the younger population (mostly among people who are forty and younger) both soccer and "socialist policies" are fairly popular. With the rise of Bernie Sanders and the movement he has created, democratic conversations have moved to the left. He might not win the nomination but he has certainly won hearts and minds among a fair portion of the democratic electorate.

The same can be said for soccer in America, the sport is here but not HERE. What I mean is that the sport is finally becoming popular and played by a fair portion of the population but it hasn't captured the national consciousness or imagination like it could, even with the US Women's team winning the 2019 Women's World Cup.

The organization in charge of the sport in this country, USSF has shown they are incompetent of taking the sport to the next level. In the past week, the federation has fallen into complete shambles with the departure of President Carlos Cordeiro after his federation defended their sexist stance against the US Women's national team in the equal pay lawsuit. Instead of inspiring change and progressivism, the federation has shown in the past week that they are backward thinking and out of touch with people who care about the sport in this country.

Nothing much has changed from the failure of 2017 at the US Soccer Federation with members caring more about their bottom line and revenues than actually growing the game in a meaningful way. Cordeiro's only notable win in his presidency was winning the birth for for the US, Mexico, & Canada to host the 2026 World Cup. Besides this, most soccer fans in this country have become apathetic to the men's team and an organization that has proven that it can't change and doesn't want to change. There are many problems with soccer in this country ranging from lower division clubs going insolvent, the pay to play system, & lack of minority representation, just to name a few.

Carlos Cordeiro, former USSF President

The same can be said for the DNC who under Tom Perez's leadership still went ahead with the democratic primary last week in Michigan and Florida even though the coronavirus was spreading across this country. Voter suppression has been clear from the start in this primary season with young voters at universities waiting in four hour lines and polling stations closing, leaving many working class voters without the ability to exercise their most basic right in a democracy. There was even the sketchy Iowa Caucus, where results were even given for a week after the app that was supposed to count the votes had issues. It was reported later that democratic primary hopeful Pete Buttigieg had ties to the app company Shadow.

The DNC has continued to show that it not only doesn't welcome progressive ideas, it battles against them. The Superdelegate system from 2016 still exists but now it is in the second round of voting (if there is no clear majority). The Democrats themselves have resisted President Trump in some ways but not others especially when it comes to expanding his war budget by over $1 trillion. Meanwhile, Presidential hopeful and former VP of President Obama, Joe Biden says he has "no sympathy for Millennials." The party that claims it is to the left continues to smear Bernie Sanders, calling ideas like Medicare4All a "pie in the sky" idea, meanwhile at the same time letting candidates like billionaire Mike Bloomberg buy his way into the primary. In the end, if Joe Biden is the nominee, many young, working class progressive voters will become even more apathetic to a party that already is proving to not necessarily have their interests at heart.

Joe Biden, a candidate that represents what was under Obama not what could be.

There are many similarities between the DNC and the USSF. Both only care about their bottom line and wealthy donors, both have proven at times to be against progressive change that is needed, both look incompetent, and unable to change. This has left many who care deeply about their respective causes when it comes to the sport of soccer or progressive politics apathetic to the leaders who claim they are on the right side of history when in reality they aren't.