Why protesting is the most American of all American values
Over the past weekend, President Donald Trump wandered off script during a campaign rally for Sen. Luther Strange in Alabama to take aim at a group of people who dared to express their displeasure with a certain aspect of American life.
While this is hardly something new for the always controversial President, this time around he took on one of the most popular organizations in the country: the National Football League.
“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field?’” he said.
He went on to add that a team owner who fired a player for failing to stand during the playing of the National Anthem prior to a game would become “the most popular person in the country. Because that is a total disrespect of our heritage.”
Naturally this did not go over very well, to the surprise of no one possibly other than the President. Even the most ardent spinmeister couldn’t mask the true meaning of what he was saying, that engaging in protest is now, in his worldview, now longer an American value.
Stop and think about that for a moment.
Whether you agree with the current protest, started by former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, of African-American players taking a knee during the anthem to protest racial injustice, or not, the simple fact is that protest is as American a value as anything we hold sacred.
In the early part of the 20th Century, women took to the streets in protest of the lack of suffrage. The result was the 19th Amendment which gave women the right to vote.
The labor movement throughout the early half of the 20th Century involved protests of all types that gave rise to great protections for workers and much safer workplaces.
The Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s, led primarily by the non-violent protest philosophy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., helped bring about major changes in our society (changes that are, alas, still being fought to the current day).
And most recently, after decades of protest, the rights of Americans to marry whom they choose regardless of gender paved the way for the legalization of same-sex marriage across the land.
Protest is not popular. Throughout our history, protesters have all but always been in the minority. The Founding Fathers understood this—they were in the minority in protesting how the British ruled the American Colonies—and made certain to create a system of government that not only supported such protest, but enshrined it as a truly American value.
For anyone in government, least of all the President, to state that such protests are “disrespectful of our heritage” have displayed their own utter lack of understanding of what our heritage truly is.
Over 400,000 Americans gave their lives during World War II in defense of our way of life, fighting against the evils of fascism and tyranny. What is truly disrespectful, what is absolutely reprehensible, is using the language of fascism to “defend” American values.
Thankfully, the majority of owners and players in the NFL this past weekend stood up to the President and showed true American values. For they understand what President Trump does not, that protesting injustice is what leads to justice. To try to quell dissent leads only to further injustice.
And that is not what the United States stands for. Or at least, what it never should.