Have you ever sat and watched someone rail against the Earth being round when they’re literally using a platform that needs a satellite circling the planet to work? You try and try to implore reason and facts to show that they’re completely off base, but they continue with their idiocy. That’s what it feels like watching politicians confuse the reasoning of why NFL players are taking a knee in protest.
What you’ll hear from GOP politicians is that the players are protesting the flag and our soldiers. What they don’t understand is that this is so dumb that a donkey should kick them in the face. Kaepernick basically sacrificed his career by kneeling during the National Anthem. Did he do this because he hated soldiers? Did he do this because he hated the flag? Did he do this because he hated America? No. He did it on a national stage to protest America’s complacency with letting black people get shot, arrested, and ignored by our government.
After President Trump decided to be, yet again, unpresidential on Twitter, almost the entire NFL kneeled in protest. What followed was a bit of misinformation from both parties involved. Trump complained that the players rallied against the flag and the military. The NFL turned the protest into a sort of vague protest against Trump’s statement against the NFL. This led to people not remembering why Kaepernick did what he did in the first place.
That aside, no one is kneeling because they hate what soldiers lived or died for. This is a confusing stance behind trying to limit a movement that is trying to promote equality. Trump and his GOP henchmen are trying to pull the blinders over your eyes so you don’t reread the 1st Amendment:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
If the NFL wants to fire a player over their right of free speech, they can. They’re a private organization. I can go into my office and scream that my boss is an idiot because I have the right to do so, but that doesn’t mean he can’t fire me for saying it. The NFL has that same right, but the problem is that they agree with the players, and the president hates this.