“He may have been well-served to ponder on the fact that former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick started his kneeling protest in August 2016 – when President Barack Obama was in office.”
In the latest partisan political stunt from Capitol Hill, Representative Al Green (D-TX) vowed on Tuesday to use a “privileged” resolution to force a House floor vote to impeach President Trump.
According to a report by The Hill, the member of the Congressional Black Caucus made the announcement as he denounced President Trump’s very public stance on the NFL players taking a knee during the national anthem, something that started out as a sign of protest against allegedly racist police brutality but has now taken on the broader tones of anti-Americanism. Green said Trump’s comments amount to “a level of indecency that is unbecoming the presidency.”
Instead of using the platform of his office to attack the presidency, Green – who self-proclaimed his patriotism as one “who believes in his country, who salutes the flag, and says the Pledge of Allegiance, and sings the national anthem,” – may have better used his time to underscore that the freedom to protest is a constitutional right in America as well as freedom of speech, and by extension, the right of personal opinion – and that even the President of the United States is entitled to one.
He may have been well-served to ponder on the fact that former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick started his kneeling protest in August 2016 – when President Barack Obama was in office.
With a limited working calendar, Green’s time may have been made even better use of by presenting a plan of action to address concerns of police brutality under a united and bipartisan banner of patriotism – regardless of who is President in the Oval Office.
Unfortunately, with this example of “leadership,” the high profile player protests are likely to linger at least for the football season, something which usually only divides Americans between rival teams. Sadly, at least for the time being, America’s favorite pastime appears to have been hijacked as the bread and circus for partisan politicking in lieu of seasonal solidarity across voter demographics.
