Metaphors are never perfect. If they were, they would be identical copies, not learning opportunities. A more perfect metaphor for Donald Trump’s vision of America versus Bad Bunny’s vision of how Donnie treats Puerto Rico would have had the New York Jets play the Seattle “Sharks” in the 2026 Super Bowl. This would have left no doubt of the half-time show message. My northeast coast bred wife, Peg, said about five minutes into the spectacular production of telephone poles, sugar cane bundles and salsa rhythms, “Hey, Jim, this is West Side Story!”
With my small-town Southwest upbringing I got it a little more slowly, but I had to agree. Donald Trump’s MAGA view of America (the white Jets) was juxtaposed to Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio’s Puerto Rico (the Sharks). Themes of immigration, bias, and what America is truly about were punctuated by throbbing music and ecstatic dancing. In less than fifteen minutes, Bad Bunny celebrated the culture of the United States and of Puerto Rico and Spanish speaking peoples, including soccer, but reaffirmed America’s triumphant football talisman by personally carrying a “real” football.
Bad Bunny has stated that the only thing stronger than hate is love. He described his “fifteen minutes of half-time fame” as the desire for Americans to conquer hate with love, especially through music and dancing. Bunny, dressed all in white, joined that endless legacy of dreamers such as Jesus, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King and our Founding Fathers (and Mothers) who advance the hope that love will conquer hate. I am less sanguine, but it is probably better to keep an open mind even in the face of thousands of years of contrary evidence.
I am familiar with Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story but confess I had never heard of Bad Bunny until Super Bowl LX. On the other hand, I had never heard of Taylor Swift until she started showing up at Kansas City Chiefs games. I do know a few songs by that earlier “Elvis the Pelvis” who drove my generation’s parents to distraction and to whom Bad Bunny is compared for what the Donald calls Bunny’s pornographic movements and song lyrics (does Donald even understand Spanish?). Although, if anyone should recognize pornography it might be someone judged by a jury with sexual assault. Unfortunately, the endings for both Romeo and Juliet and for Tony and Maria were not love conquering hate but tragedy.
If football is America’s new substitute for great literature, the Super Bowl half-time show may have become the type of looking glass through which we see and seize our country’s future. Will we celebrate another 250 years of our Constitutional republic and a striving for what even our most mundane athletic contests offer: Due Process and the Rule of Law as interpreted by impartial officials? Or will we finally have reached the final gun as so many other cultures have done? Bad Bunny says he is betting on love while Donald proudly professes hate for his enemies.
If sports are a metaphor for our country’s life, Super Bowl LX’s half-time show with its “Love conquers all” message may draw upon the “Better Angels of our nature”. Hey, it could happen.