Last Institution Standing

In the 1960s, the left began its “long march through the institutions”; where it infiltrated many of the major institutions in our country; most notably the media, Hollywood, Academia and the courts.  These institutions have a lot of power to shape public opinion.  Therefore, it should come as no surprise that the infiltration of these institutions by radical leftists has allowed the progressive agenda to advance at a much faster pace than it would have otherwise.

 

Until recently, the military remained one of the few institutions left untouched by the social justice warriors.  The left has allowed the military to become a laboratory for social engineering; first with the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and then with the introduction of transgender soldiers into the military.

 

Until about two years ago, I would have said that professional sports remained the only apolitical major American institution.  At that time, San Francisco 49ers player Colin Kaepernick began kneeling during the National Anthem to protest police brutality.  During one particular game, he wore socks that depicted police officers as pigs.  He did not renew his contract with the 49ers and no other team has chosen to sign him; which helps fuel his narrative that depicts America as a racist country.       

 

President Trump has made it clear that he does not appreciate it when NFL players kneel during the national anthem. While at a rally in Alabama last Friday, President Trump made the following statement: “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say ‘Get that son of a b***h off the field right now?”  The audience responded with thunderous applause.   

 

Former Congresswoman Donna Edwards (D-MD) called for all NFL players to kneel during the National Anthem on Sunday to show solidarity against “the white supremacist who squats in our White House.”  It did not take long for the #takeaknee to begin trending on Twitter.      

 

During Sunday’s games, at least one person from every team decided to kneel during the national anthem.  Check out this complete list of players who kneeled during the anthem on Sunday.   Playing a game in London, several members of the Baltimore Ravens and the Jacksonville Jaguars took a knee during the American National Anthem but stood up for the British National Anthem.  Apparently, these people feel the American Revolution didn’t do any good. 

 

Nearly all of the Pittsburgh Steelers chose to remain in the locker room during the National Anthem. However, one of their players bravely decided to swim against the politically correct current.  Offensive tackle Alejandro Villanueva, who served three tours of duty in Afghanistan, stood in front of the entrance tunnel during the national anthem while his teammates remained in the locker room. Hopefully, anthem protesters noticed that Villanueva’s jersey quickly became the top selling NFL Jersey in the 24 hour period after Sunday’s games started.

 

On Monday night, team owner Jerry Jones linked armed with members of the Dallas Cowboys, who knelt before the national anthem but stood as soon as it started playing.  Perhaps other NFL team owners will seek to replicate this compromise where the protesters make their point without disrespecting the national anthem.     

 

NFL players should not think that Newton’s third law of motion does not apply to them.  For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.  The NFL should expect its ratings to continue to decline if it keeps encouraging this type of behavior.  Football players should not forget that many of their loyal fans have fought for this country overseas and see the disrespect of the flag as a slap in the face to their service.  In the wake of the anthem protests, Direct TV has offered refunds to its disaffected customers who ordered the NFL Sunday Ticket package.  Many loyal football fans have posted videos of themselves burning NFL memorabilia to show their opposition to their teams’ disrespect for the flag by not standing for the national anthem.   

 

Despite the fact that the President did not even mention race in his comments, it did not take long for the race baiters in the mainstream media and on the left to begin decrying the President’s comments as racist. Appearing on MSNBC earlier this week, Hillary Clinton complained that “it’s quite telling that he’s willing to attack black athletes. He never says anything of an insulting manner towards white supremacists or neo-Nazis or Ku Klux Klanners or Vladimir Putin, right?” Perhaps she didn’t notice that many white athletes also chose to kneel during the national anthem as well.  CNN’s Don Lemon gave his take on the controversy, saying “If anyone actually believes this is about the flag, then you must believe Rosa Parks’s protest was about a bus.”  For those who have not noticed it yet, the left wants to make everything about race.   The left got even angrier when the President told Fox News’s Pete Hegseth that NFL owners “are afraid of their players.”  That statement led CNN’s Chris Cuomo to say that the President’s statement made it sound like he was telling NFL players to “control your dog.”  In my opinion, the NFL owners fear harassment from the PC police in the mainstream media more than they fear their players. 

  

 

Even prior to this past week’s national anthem protests, the sports media in the United States had already begun drifting to the left.  Curt Schilling lost his job at ESPN for sharing a politically incorrect statement about transgendered people on Facebook yet Jemele Hill got to keep her job after she “apologized” for calling the President of the United States a white supremacist.  Fox Sports Anchor Clay Travis jokingly referred to ESPN as “MS-ESPN” after the network reassigned sportscaster Robert Lee from covering the University of Virginia home opener because he shared the same name as Confederate General Robert E. Lee.  UVA is located in Charlottesville, where the city council voted to remove a statue of General Lee; sparking violent protests.  Also, former ESPN employee Britt McHenry has claimed that she lost her job at ESPN because of her conservative political views.

 

While the media has tried to play up the narrative that only President Trump’s base disapproves of the anthem protests, opinion polling proves that narrative false.  A recent Fox News poll finds that 55 percent of Americans see kneeling during the national anthem as an inappropriate form of protest while 41 percent see kneeling during the anthem as a legitimate form of protest.  Those numbers show that even some people who did not vote for President Trump disapprove of the #Takeaknee movement.  Maybe President Trump has more in common with the average American than the mainstream media wants people to think.   

 

I feel confident that many Americans would love to engage in a debate with the protesting NFL players to respectfully discuss the issues that they feel so passionately about.  We’ll see if the players would actually participate in a debate or if they would rather just continue engaging in virtue-signaling.  Michelle Malkin claimed that “If they (the NFL) keep doubling down on stupid, NFL is going to stand for no fans left.”  For the sake of all the NFL fans across the country, I hope the league straightens things out before her statement proves correct.