While it’s not the tactic I would advise, I’d like to remind everyone that people aren’t kneeling during the national anthem because they don’t like the singing or the lyrics. They aren’t doing it because they think our flag is ugly. Their point is not to show disrespect or disapproval of either. They’re kneeling to draw attention to the fact that people of color get shot or choked or tased to death by the police at an alarming rate in this country and that the shooters and chokers are almost never found to have committed a sanctionable offense, let alone a crime.
So, when the president says that the protesters are sons of bitches who should be fired for their disloyalty, that’s not just a calculated way to benefit politically, it’s primarily a way to avoid acknowledging the whole point.
That it is so easy to divert attention from the whole point and to benefit politically while doing so is a good argument against the protest tactic, and I might offer some alternatives that would be more effective. But I’d never dismiss the sentiment behind it. I’d never call someone a son of a bitch because they think it’s wrong that so many young men of color are losing their lives without any form of due process, or because he or she is outraged that it’s nearly impossible for a cop to be punished or prosecuted for taking a life no matter how strong the evidence is against them.
This isn’t really even a protest against the police. Not really. It’s only a protest against the police if the police collectively take the attitude that killing black and brown people with near impunity is not only a solid policy but their God-given right. If they believe bad shootings and wrongful deaths are no big deal, then obviously the kneeling becomes a protest against the police in general. But that’s their choice to react that way and turn the people against them. If they want to respond to people begging for black lives to matter by insisting that all this criticism is a way of arguing the blue lives don’t, then they’ve brought broad moral condemnation on themselves. No one forced them to misunderstand or pretend to misunderstand, or to take sides against the people who criticize the bad cops in their ranks.
The president is a born asshole seeking to lead every born asshole in the country. If you take his side on this, you’re joining a truly deplorable army. You can disagree with the tactic of kneeling during the anthem without joining an army of born assholes.
