It’s Not About the Anthem

The question is not whether the government of a free country may force its citizens to salute the flag or sing the national anthem. That’s not what President Trump and the San Francisco 49ers are fighting about. The fight is over whether the American flag and anthem — which at least stand for liberty and individual rights — are worth fighting for, and honoring, in the first place.

Here are the facts:

President Trump referred to NFL players who protest the anthem as “SOBs”. He also said that it would be a winning public relations move if an NFL owner were to “fire” a player for such a protest.

I couldn’t agree more.

President Trump has not proposed that government forces enter the football stadium and force football players to salute the flag or sing the anthem. Football stadiums are private property. They have the right not to be forced by the government to sing the anthem. Their employers also have the right to fire them for not following NFL protocol, since the NFL is a privately owned entity. Some, President Trump included — along with many others of us — think players like Colin Kaepernick should be condemned and fired by their employers, for this reason.

The American flag and the national anthem do not stand for allegiance to the collective, the state, or to any presiding ruler, elected or otherwise. The flag and anthem stand for — or at least should stand for — individual rights. If you’re rational, enlightened and therefore cherish your individual rights above all else, you should honestly and sincerely want to show respect (if not reverence) for what the flag and anthem represent. Whatever the sins and contradictions of a distant past (e.g., slavery), the American flag and anthem do not stand for slavery. They never did. That’s why America was the first country in human history to fight a civil war for the eradication of slavery. If it’s truly slavery and racism you oppose, you ought to love and salute what that flag represents more than anyone else.

Colin Kaepernick and others are not rejecting the national anthem for reasons related to individual rights or liberty, including the economic liberty that gives their bosses as much a right to fire them as to retain and defend them. Kaepernick stands for racial supremacy groups like Black Lives Matter, and socialistic programs (Obamacare, welfare, endless pork in D.C.) pushed by the leftists they support with the use of coercion. He shows disrespect for America not because it has too little liberty and individual rights, but because it has too much. He wants more and more government, like virtually all leftists and Democrats. He loves police and armies — so long as they’re enforcing the will of Obama or some similar leftist figure, rather than someone else. What that flag represents gets in the way. And like his fellow leftists who swoon and fawn over Kaepernick, he labels any and all dissenting opinion racist.

Is it a stretch to think that sooner or later we might get an American President who reflects the attitude of many of us — maybe even most of us — that we’re sickened and fed up with it all?

Here’s what San Francisco 49ers CEO Jed York said in reply to President Trump’s entirely justified rant:

The callous and offensive comments made by the President are contradictory to what this great country stands for. Our players have exercised their rights as United States citizens in order to spark conversation and action to address social injustice. We will continue to support them in their peaceful pursuit of positive change in our country and around the world. The San Francisco 49ers will continue to work toward bringing communities, and those who serve them, closer together.

The P.C. dribble uttered by this man ignores the same thing that Kaepernick and his ilk ignore. America was never about bringing “communities together”. That’s what Nazi, Communist, Muslim and other totalitarian states seek to do. America was founded to protect the right and sovereignty of individuals, not communities. When people are left free, it so happens that communities function a whole lot better, it’s true. But “community love” has nothing whatsoever to do with what the American flag and anthem symbolize.

And that’s exactly why they hate them.

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