In 1986, the Chicago Bears won the Super Bowl. They have not won one since. There are lessons here for the new Republican coalition.
The Bears this year stink. Even with a new quarterback and the in-season jettisoning of the head coach, the Bears continue the proud Chicago tradition of losing. It was not always this way. In our grandson’s crib are a whole bunch of stuffed animals. Beyond the dolphin and the rabbit is a polar bear wearing a Bears sweater and hat. It was made by Carson Pirie Scott &Co. in honor of the Bears Super Bowl victory. I bought one and have had it ever since.
The Bears of 1985-86 were extraordinary. They only lost one game to the Dolphins; the rest they won through the total brutality of their defense. A quarterback had maybe 2 seconds to get rid of the ball before he was mauled by one or more of the Monsters of the Midway. Buddy Ryan put together defensive schemes that baffled opposing offensive coordinators. It’s a good thing that Soldier Field is close to a hospital.
After the season, Walter “Sweetness” Payton gave each offensive lineman a Rolex. When the Bears crashed out of the playoffs early the next year, a local sportscaster quipped that nobody knew that he was giving out retirement presents. As I see several current NFL quarterbacks giving expensive gifts to their linemen, I am reminded of this episode. The Bears, after their Super Bowl mauling of the Patriots, were bringing everyone back. It was assumed that they would dominate for years and become a Cowboys-like dynasty. Since their victory in 1986, the Bears have only returned to the Super Bowl once and they lost. How did the Bears collapse so suddenly?
The writing was on the wall already at the Super Bowl. Players picked up head coach Mike Ditka, but the defensive guys picked up their coordinator, Buddy Ryan. Ryan felt that he had a lot to do with the team’s success and considered himself a co-head coach. When the next season started, Ditka and Ryan were not on speaking terms. The team devolved into camps. And while there was enough talent to get to the playoffs, the incredible unity that catapulted the Bears into the stratosphere was gone. The winning team had made a rap video (“The Super Bowl Shuffle”) and always seemed to be united in their dominance of any opponent. They had swagger and then it was gone, as was their success.
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Donald Trump’s political comeback is probably the greatest in US history. When one takes into account the efforts made against him outside of campaigning—the lawsuits, trying to remove his name from the ballot—his success is unbelievable. The Donald Trump who ran in 2024 was far more thoughtful and balanced than the one who ran in 2016. He could spend hours on podcasts while never sending a mean tweet to anybody. He also assembled a coalition that brought both individuals and groups that would never have thought of entering the Trump orbit in the past. I remember articles on this website warning that while Tulsi Gabbard and Bobby Kennedy, Jr. said many appealing things, in the end they were liberals. That was then. After joining Donald Trump and wholeheartedly supporting his candidacy, they are full partners in the Trump Coalition. The same is true for others who were Democrats, like Joe Rogan and Elon Musk, without whose purchase of Twitter, there would have been no way to get around the Democratic media/social media stranglehold. So, as Donald Trump and JD Vance prepare for their entering the White House, how do we keep the coalition together and avoid the fate of the 1986 Bears, who were amazing and then fizzled out?
There are three factors for keeping things together, the biggest one being respect. People can have diametrically-opposed opinions but they can respect each other as one of God’s creations. I am sure that Tip O’Neill and Ronald Reagan agreed on very little; but I am also very certain that they got along well due to their mutual respect. Nancy Pelosi’s very public act of tearing up Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech was the ultimate sign of disrespect. MAGA, MAHA, Hispanics, orthodox Jews and whatever other groups stood behind Donald Trump’s victory, including winning the popular vote, must have respect for one another, even if they disagree.
The next factor is leadership. The Bears owner made a huge mistake in letting the Ditka-Ryan feud fester, as it spread throughout the locker room. Ryan eventually left and was head coach for three different teams, none of them making it to the Super Bowl. Donald Trump is the boss and he has to make the decisions. This was not the case during Covid, when people who are supposed to advise the president, like Fauci and Collins, made policy with the acquiescence of the White House. Donald Trump will hear from different people different approaches on various subjects. RFK, Jr. might want to ban some chemicals, while someone over at Treasury might say that it would be a mistake to do so as it would lead to job losses. Donald Trump needs to lead by clear decision-making and not murky efforts relayed by aides via the media. If he sees Elon Musk and Tulsi Gabbard going after each other in the press, he needs to bring them in and get them both on the same page. Letting problems grow can lead to a complete loss of the winning coalition.
Finally, Donald Trump and his associates need to keep up the positive vibe. Many noted during the latter part of the election that Trump and other Republicans were having a great time, while the Democrats constantly looked as if they were attending their own funerals. Trump needs to keep up his little dance and should periodically give podcast interviews to keep in touch with the younger members of his coalition. I never saw Chicagoans happier than when the Bears and later the Bulls, White Sox, Blackhawks, and Cubs won their championships. Winning breeds more success. If Donald Trump is having fun, then things are going well. The coach who beat the Bears in the 2007 Super Bowl., Tony Dungy, kept his Colts loose all the way to victory.
Like any Chicagoan, I chant, “Next year” every time a local team is statistically eliminated from playoff contention. The hardest part of the Bears’ failure is to break it to the stuffed bear that the Bears are out of contention. Most years, he seems to take it pretty well, though one year I found the sweater and hat in the garbage. Donald Trump’s political comeback was exceptional. It was built on disparate groups coming together to get rid of Team Obama and their DEI, open border, inflation and world laughingstock positions for good. The Trump Train can go for quite a while, but only if we all stay on board.
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