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JUNE 8, 2023
Meyerson on TAP
If You Three-Putt, You'll Be Dismembered
The PGA selling out to MBS is pro golf's version of the Republicans'
submission to Trump.
Professional golf has always been a peculiarly Republican sport. Rooted
in the world of country clubs, and hence of traditional local civic
establishments, of duffer CEOs and surgeons who slice, it grooms young
men (we're
**not** talking about the LPGA here) to the mores of the upper echelons
of the business world.
That's the vibe, but the numbers back it up. My first exposure to the
politics of the PGA Tour came just after the 1972 presidential election,
when a survey of PGA pros showed that more than 300 of them had voted
for Richard Nixon and exactly one had voted for George McGovern. Since
then, the pros have become more demographically diverse, but their
politics have remained on the right. As this week's submission to the
siren call of Saudi wealth makes lamentably clear.
So much for this make-it-in-America nonsense. Like the corporate
executives who've always loved to play alongside the Greg Normans,
Arnold Palmers, Ben Hogans, and Bobby Joneses in Pro-Am tournaments, the
allure of big bucks from overseas-even if it means cozying up to the
occasional barbarous dictator-has proved irresistible. Offshoring to
China (almost all of which came
**after** Tiananmen Square)? Legitimating Mohammed bin Salman in return
for bigger bucks (never mind the imprisoned dissidents and the
dismembered journalist)? When you focus on the bottom line, such moral
concerns float happily away.
That said, the CEOs at least can cloak their lust for self-enrichment in
professions of concern for their shareholders. Golf pros can make no
such claims. The Saudi royal's riyals trickle down no further than the
pros themselves. (Well, I suppose they'll also enrich the PR firms
being hired to make this deal appear less nauseating than it actually
is.)
By agreeing to dismiss all moral and political concerns about MBS, the
PGA is merely replicating the Republican establishment's submission to
and embrace of Donald Trump and his incendiary bigotry. Then again, the
PGA has always been the pro-sports wing of the Republican establishment
(just as the stock car racing circuit has been the pro-sports wing of
white nationalism). Schooled as they were in country-club values, the
pros were steeled to never sell out-until the price was right.
~ HAROLD MEYERSON
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Congress Short-Circuits the Electric Grid
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It's bad enough not to get a clean debt bill, but it's worse to
impede electric transmission issues as part of the bargain. BY GABRIELLE
GURLEY
Merck Says Negotiating Drug Prices Is Unconstitutional
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The Inflation Reduction Act took minor steps against Big Pharma
price-gouging. Merck is outraged. BY RYAN COOPER
L.A.'s Summer of Solidarity
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Reaching across diverse backgrounds and kinds of work, thousands of
union members are sharing strategy and stories of the struggle to live
and work in Los Angeles. BY MARK KREIDLER
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