I haven’t been to a professional game since high school days, and have never been into it that much myself, but I have a bunch of friends who are big football fans and we get together some weeks to watch the Bengals get their asses kicked.
Due to trump, I may attend my first game of this millennium, just so that I can continue sitting as the anthem comes on.
If someone is expecting loyalty, then they are demanding it. There is no difference. If you expect to see loyalty, and you don’t see it, what do you do? You then demand it. You order the owners to fire the “sons of bitches” who do not show the loyalty that you expect.
And those are the only reasons and ways in which it is acceptable for an american to profess their patriotism?
Can you please list the forms of free speech that you find acceptable?
Sorry… “He” here is Trump. And what he is demanding is really hyperbole and should be ignored, but he’s a chest thumping blowhard for saying these things.
Yes I see your point that he was demanding, but I see it as hyperbole to roll my eyes at and say, shut up, do your job and not this shit.
I am on his email list and he pinged me for my take on this, and I basically told him that.
In order to “exacerbate” the division, it has to exist in the first place. Trump didn’t create the divisions.
And yes, his tweets and the reactions to them are making it more of a defined political statement on whether you stand or not. It is a huge win for any politician when his opposition is cornered into supporting something extremely unpopular. Standing up for the national anthem a widespread, accepted and popular tradition in the United States. That is why I said that Trump’s tweets were a brilliant move.
Just wait until some Democratic politicians feel pressured (or decide on their own) into not standing for the national anthem.
Note the way that Okrahoma is trying to change the narrative here, too.
Now, in his words, this is all a brilliant Trump plan to divide the nation, so we know who is a patriot and who isn’t…? Huh?
No, that’s not what this is about and that isn’t whats going to happen. It’s about Trump not liking the NFL, it’s black players (just generally, because their black) and about how Trump always reaches for the low-hanging populist fruit.
Idiots like Okrahoma and Clothahump might want to make it about something else, but they’ll fail. And that will likely only make them madder.
That’s a distinction without a difference to me as for what I see the role of a president as. You obviously disagree. That’s fine. (For the record, that’s the same reason I disliked Hillary’s “deplorables” comments.) I think a leader should promote unity and difference of opinion rather than “my way or the highway” sort of mindset. I saw firsthand the aftermath of what happened in Yugoslavia when Milosevic and Tuđman got their hands on nationalism and exacerbated divisions within their peoples. That’s the sort of thing that frightens me.
A lot of folks who are butt hurt about people kneeling during the anthem are the same folks who were talking about seceding when a black man was in the oval office. And they, like you, considered themselves patriots.
"Do you think NFL players should stand and be respectful during the national anthem?
Yes: 64%
No: 24%
Unsure: 12%"
"Last week, Donald Trump said NFL players should stand and be respectful during the national anthem. Do you think NFL players should stand and be respectful during the national anthem?
No matter what kind of spin you try to put on this, this will, and is, backfiring on the orange buffoon.
Trump, in his inimitably narcissistic way, made this a referendum on Trump.
The national anthem, while this controversy lasts, will no longer be about America or patriotism, but about whether or not you stand with or against Trump.
Man, you’re stupid, that 64 % is not people wanting respect to Trump. Many of those people hate and loath Trump. And any moron can jump into a bandwagon if the question is right.
Say do YOU want a total world destruction in a nuclear war ? No ? Well, neither did Obama - - - and 100 % of the population. Brilliant move by Obama.
That’s not the question. The question is whether they should be fired for respectfully and peacefully protesting with a kneel or by sitting during the national anthem. That’d be a much more interesting poll.
As would a poll on whether the mothers of NFL players who choose to peacefully protest are “bitches”, as Trump says they are.
You think that’s not the question. I think that is how most of the population sees the question. Especially as more and more players, Democratic politicians etc. “take the knee”.
Again, you may disagree. But I see this as a brilliant political move that will benefit Trump.
You may think that the public perception of the kerfuffle is about firing. I don’t think so. I think it is about the not standing.