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CLEMONS: Politics in sports is here to stay
Braves

Since Major League Baseball made its decision last week to pull the All-Star Game out of Atlanta, a common refrain has been the desire to see politics taken out of sports.

But those days, like my plans for a trip to Cobb County on the second Tuesday in July, are gone.

People mad at MLB say the sport and companies who oppose the state’s new Election Integrity Act are misguided. But the reason we have this law in the first place — the reason there was such an all-fire hurry to do something in the 40-day General Assembly session that ended March 31 — was because our former president simply could not accept his narrow defeat in Georgia, and has convinced supporters of large-scale fraud that would have reversed the result.

And now the simple act of going to a Braves game is going to be political.

Just as watching the NFL is, whether you do or you don’t.

Just as wearing a mask is, or isn’t.

Just as, now, apparently, it will be a declaration of — something — if you take Delta or drink a Coke, or like me drink a Coke Zero on Delta.

It’s maddening, and it’s only getting started. Buckle up because the 2022 elections, and culture wars, have begun.

David Clemons is the editor and publisher of the Walton Tribune in Monroe, and a former publisher of the Covington News. He also remains a Braves season ticket-holder. He may be reached at david.clemons@waltontribune.com.