Getting Tossed Under Bus Popular Lately

It seems there has been an inordinate amount of disloyalty lately. Especially in the political realm. I’ll pause here to inform you that I won’t be publicly taking sides in the upcoming presidential election. I intend to have some fun in this column as I endure the process, but an endorsement is not forthcoming. Make your own educated choice. Who cares which candidate a Hollywood star supports or what a coach who poses as a columnist thinks?

Back to the disloyalty thing. It seems that in this particular election a catch-phrase has emerged. It isn’t new but it is destined to remain as a vocabularial (not a word but you know I like to invent) fixture for generations to come. The phrase involves the fractured relationship between two previously connected individuals caused by a sudden desire on the part of one of the parties involved to disassociate with or place blame upon the other.

News commentators and political analysts call it “throwing someone under the bus.” Ouch. During my coaching career I have ridden many a bus for umpteen million miles and I can tell you, the area under a bus is one of my least desirable places to visit, especially if said bus is in motion.

There are other ways to describe it. Hanging someone out to dry. Flushing someone down the toilet. Backstabbing, dishing, cutting ties. That sorta thing. Either way, it’s no fun to be the recipient of such an action.

Not to say politicians are wrong for doing it. The TV political analysts keep claiming it’s necessary. Take, for example, the three remaining candidates for President of the United States.

Each has been forced for different reasons to toss former friends under the bus to save their own reputations. Senator Clinton axed her campaign manager after a string of losses a while back. She claimed they remain good friends but I gotta wonder how much they’ve been calling and texting each other since axe day.

Senator McCain heaved some of his staffers onto the street in the path of an oncoming Greyhound when he discovered that they were found to be consorting with lobbyists, which Mr. McCain claims to be uninfluenced by.

And a day after Senator Obama’s former pastor called a press conference to explain his views, the senator conducted his own press conference. You guessed it- under the bus went the pastor.

Personally, I think people have already grown tired of hearing about folks being tossed under buses. And I suppose buses are offended as well- assuming rightfully that the whole deal is bad for their image. Of course, if we say “cut ties,” then neckties are offended. If we say “hanging out to dry,” clotheslines and nooses will take offense. And if we insist on flushing or canning folks, toilets will raise a stink.

So I guess we’re stuck with the figurative hurling of human beings into the paths of imaginary oncoming buses. I’m not a big fan of the analogy, but every channel I flip to on my television has some “expert” who is enamored with the phrase. Perhaps when the election is done the experts will no longer be needed and the networks will give them the opportunity to discover what it feels like to get thrown under the bus.