Stephen Miller:
For all of Donald Trump’s often baffling social commentary, he could not have asked for better opponents in an ongoing culture war that has the political left crying foul. On everything from statues, to sports protests, the left seems eager to somehow try to out-do Trump’s bombastic absurdity. Everyone from activists to journalists and Democrat Party members have decided that moderation is all but DOA and the cultural pendulum which swung far left for eight years is swinging back right with equal velocity.
The national anthem protests by NFL players this weekend is just the latest example of overreach (a word only seen in media to describe the right’s response to Democrat scandals) by a side of the political aisle that has been drummed down to their largest governing minority since World War II. Trump’s comments in Alabama resurrected a mostly dormant discussion about NFL players kneeling in protest over perceived police brutality that started with 49ers backup quarterback Colin Kaepernick last year, in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.
The kneel down gesture was always puzzling to me, as the national anthem isn’t played at sporting events to honor police officers. It’s in large part to honor men and women serving in the nation’s armed forces (more on that in a minute) which give us the freedom to gather in stadiums or around our televisions every Sunday and scream at grown men chasing each other with a ball.
I don’t need to debate the merits or the wisdom behind Kaepernick’s actions.There’s been too much of that already. But what is up for debate is the wisdom of the political left throwing in with a gesture that still, to this day and despite what you see on cable news and social media, remains largely unpopular with the voting public. In 2016, a Quinnipac poll found that only 38 percent of those supported NFL players kneeling during the National Anthem. A Reuters poll found that 72 percent found the protest to be unpatrioticbut also that 64 percent agreed there should be no punishment or fine.
Thanks to Trump’s reinvigoration of the debate, it didn’t take long for pundits on the left to start suggesting that taking a knee during the national anthem is now a direct protest of Trump himself. D.C. Bureau chief for Mother Jones, David Corn outright stated “The kneel will now become a sign of opposition to Trump,” effectively hijacking the gesture from black activists. Washington Post social justice reporter Wesley Lowery called on colleagues to demand a reasoning from players who chose not to kneel. No word yet if Lowery chose to ask Pittsburgh Steelers tackle and former Army Ranger and Bronze Star recipient Alejandro Villanueva why he chose to stand for the anthem in the tunnel, the only player from the team to do so. Villanueva’s jersey sales have now skyrocketed in only a day. Jon Schwarz from the left leaning site The Intercept wrote “The National Anthem is a Celebration of Slavery”
The left has chosen to make kneeling for the national anthem now a referendum on Trump himself. A larger problem for them, and the NFL in general, is they picked this fight on a day meant to honor Gold Star mothers.
Americans can differentiate between the man in the Oval Office and the country he represents. They can acknowledge problems with community policing, or the commander-in-chief’s tweets while also honoring men and women in uniform overseas and more to the point, they know the politicization of the sport they used to love didn’t start with Donald Trump.
This is not a fight they will win, but like removing monuments of the founders , journalists (including Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg and CNN morning show host Chris Cuomo) excusing Antifa under the guise they are no different than the Greatest Generationstorming Normandy on D-Day, endorsing North Korea’s Kim Jong Un over Trump, or writing off ‘jihad’ as a noble struggle, they continue to pick unpopular battles in culture and against a large chunk of the country they lost with Hillary Clinton in 2016.
If the Leftist progressives thought that, by destoying the NFL, they could destroy cohesiveness on the right, they didn’t think it through.
See this chart:
http://www.businessinsider.com/politics-sports-you-like-2013-3
The NBA’s black players attract a very liberal voter and they are following in the black football players’ footsteps!
Anyway, let’s say the NFL is destroyed.
Those voters will still be voting.
They will just have more hours per week to devote to political activism!
Nobody has “destroyed” the NFL. Trump certainly isn’t going to do so. Trump just peed on a spark plug.
Pat Tillman’s Widow Pushes Back On Trump NFL Tweet
Well said, ma’am.
Falco Baltimore QB $24+ million/ year brady $23 million/year. spoiled multi-millionaires. brady’s work over $180 million. when ticket sales drop and accessories sales drop, and states remove tax incentives to franchise owners, than the sit will really hit the fan
Nobody requires you to buy tickets. Apparently enough customers enjoy the athletic spectacle to have made the players in question worth that sort of money as an attraction. I thought you people approved of the free market, and admired those who were successful in it.
As with all things, your principles seem to have limited application. They don’t seem to apply to those you don’t like.
Anybody check out ticket availability? Especially RE-SALE tickets?
Tons of them.
8 sections full out of a 200 section stadium in Chicago in 3 weeks.
All the rest have either MANY tickets or some for sale, even more for Re-Sale!
I think, since Colin K started all this his view ought to be reiterated:
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article114803073.html
Note Colin didn’t ever do this when he was a starter.
It was only after he started screwing up enough to be sat down a few games. It was also only after he took up with a radical leftist girlfriend.
These other football players are useful idiots.
If they implode the NFL so be it.
@Greg:
Well, unless one kneels down, individually, to pray. That is verboten, as it puts another entity above that State and the Collective.
Just as when they backed Hillary, the left denies the unpopularity of their little utopian world. At this point, liberals do not control ALL of media, just most of it. However, some truth and facts are still allowed to filter down to the deplorable people that choose to exist in regions NOT California and New York, so greater efforts to make failure appear to be the only option must be exerted.
The left has stirred up a hornet’s nest and those welts on their faces are not going to be able to be blamed on Russian interference. They own it.
@Greg: Nobody requires you to point out the fact already pointed out, and pretend that you’ve refuted a point that you are actually agreeing with.
Yes, players command this amount of money. They’re pissing off customers, who are buying less product.
Therefore, less revenue, less player salaries, and less reasons for these d-bags to misunderstand that they provide a service and that service can be replaced or simply not purchased.
Any questions, idiot? The NFL is made, bought and paid for by fans…i.e., customers.
It’s amazing how deep you Socialists have really embraced collective oppression and don’t understand the free market is the best way to provide equality and safety for all. I trust “people”, the sum value of all of us as lived out by individuals. I don’t believe in a few people imposing their will on the rest of us, which is what you believe.