Not As Bad – Update

Well, except for the POTUS being uncensored and bleating the worst and most uncivil thoughts that flit through the minds of ugly Americans.

Unless you were there, it’s difficult to describe what it was like in 1966 and that assholes like Donald Trump were the norm.  This gets close:

Muhammad Ali’s most famous act of social activism — one that would strip him of his best fighting years, cost him millions of dollars, forever alter his image and eventually send him into debt — began with one off-hand quote: “Man, I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong.”
…
For the most famous athlete on the planet to openly decry the war was, at the time, blasphemous. When he declared his apathy toward the Viet Cong, public support of the Vietnam War was at its peak — in the first three months of 1966, the war’s approval rating was over 50 percent, according to Gallup. Ali, citing his faith and membership in the Nation of Islam, refused service and said he was a conscientious objector.
…
In a flash, Ali, already controversial for his conversion to Islam and name change from Cassius Clay, became one of the most hated public figures in the country. Nobody close to Ali’s level of fame had resisted the draft, and his seemingly flippant opposition to the war made him a target of ridicule from the public, the government and his sport. He’d spend the next four years battling for his beliefs in court instead of the ring, and after his 1967 arrest for draft dodging, all of his state boxing licenses were stripped. Ali’s boxing career was effectively over.
…
Anyone who immediately came to Ali’s defense put themselves in danger. In A People’s History Of Sports In The United States, writer Jerry Izenberg recalled receiving bomb threats and tons of hate mail because he was willing to hear Ali out in the early days of his service refusal. But in most of the media, nastiness prevailed. Unlike Izenberg, famous sportswriters like Red Smith and Jim Murray were calling Ali a “punk” and “the white man’s burden.”
… [emp added]

It was really difficult to do, but last night Trump crossed that NFL/Roger Goodell line in the sand.

A bit mealy-mouthed from Goodell, but a big step up from his past silence whenever Trump trashed Kaepernick and other NFL players.  Will the NBA Commissioner speak out now that Trump has gone after a Stephen Curry?  Will other players join LeBron James?

What it won’t be like is 1966 when nobody with a public voice and megaphone supported Muhammed Ali.  And that’s why today isn’t as bad at then.

The Guardian – NFL players protest during anthem after criticism from Donald Trump – in pictures

Beautiful pictures. Emotionally powerful. (As she wipes her teary eyes.)