A new poll shows that the majority of Americans do not think kneeling during the anthem is inherently unpatriotic.
The poll shows that “Republican voters say 70 – 23 percent that these NFL players are unpatriotic.”
Those are the only voters Trump cares about. He has no interest in being president of the entire country. He has lied about the reason for the protest to rile up his base.
Sad!
This is strictly a political move to appeal to his base.
Here are tweets from Eagles player Torrey Smith.
Trump’s statement says “They disagree with their President because he insists they proudly stand for the National Anthem, hand on heart, in honor of the great men and women of our military…”
That’s not why they disagree. They don’t want to go because Trump is a racist. The players were protesting against racial injustice. It had nothing to do with the military. Trump disregarded the reason for the protest and warped it into an anti-military protest. We all support the military. Unfortunately, Trump got the NFL to cave in. The league didn’t even consult with the players which is certainly wrong.
Public opinion is divided. Notice the big difference depending on your party affiliation:
Making it an anti-military protest also means that Trump does not have to deal with the real issues raised by the players. Many of his supporters are racists so they too prefer not to deal with the valid concerns raised by the players. This is just one more way Trump is dividing the country instead of unifying it. He only cares about his base. He won the election but I don’t think of him as my president. My president is not a liar or a bigot. My president cares about all Americans.
Trump thinks of everything in terms of winning and losing instead of trying to compromise or see someone else’s point of view. This article discussed what he told Cowboys owner Jerry Jones: ““This is a very winning, strong issue for me,” the President told Jones, according to Andrew Beaton of the Wall Street Journal. “Tell everybody, you can’t win this one. This one lifts me.””
Trump supporters will say that players went to see Obama even if they disagreed with him. However, there’s a difference. Trump is a bigot and Obama is not. It’s not just disagreeing on political issues like taxes. This is much more important and fundamental. I would not want my picture taken with a racist and I wouldn’t go to see Trump.
from the mayor of Philadelphia:
Here’s an excellent column by a former NFL player critical of the NFL policy.
Here are some good tweets on the new NFL policy:
This is an excellent column by Jemele Hill. Bucs owner Ed Glazer recently hosted a Trump fundraiser. As Hill states “The political motives of players always are under scrutiny. The owners? Almost never.”
Sad!
Trump has been quick to bash NFL players. However, he hasn’t talked about the great work done by retired player Warrick Dunn who is still helping families get homes.
Dunn uses his charity to help people, not do things like Trump’s charity did such as buy pictures of Trump.
Watt and the other finalists for the Walter Payton award, Benjamin Watson and Greg Olsen, are doing great things for people. Trump could learn from them. Sad!
Trump’s attempt to sing the National Anthem at the College Football Championship game was strictly a political move to appeal to his base. He has ignored the players’ purpose for the protests – concerns about rational injustice. He has warped it into making it look like the players are disrespecting the military which is not true. His actions serve two purposes. It’s an appeal to the white supremacist part of his base and it enables him to ignore the real issues (which also appeals to his base).
This column describes out the long history of whites objecting to protests by African-Americans.
This column, by former NFL player Anquan Boldin, discusses the real reasons for the protests.
Sad! 