Flags, Songs and the Constitution

Obama: Kaepernick ‘exercising his constitutional right to make a statement’ - POLITICO:



Unsurprisingly, BO finds Colin Kaepernick's "protest" to be just fine.

“My understanding at least is he’s exercising his constitutional right to make a statement. I think there’s a long history of sports figures doing so,” he said.

Indeed ... so would a Confederate Flag be similarly protected? How about someone who doesn't believe that gay "marriage" is a "right" not baking somebody a cake? Or even someone so backward that they believe men should use men's bathrooms and women use women's?



The Constitution was once about EVERYONE having the right to their views -- even Illinois Nazis. The idea of a "pluralistic society" was that people were allowed to think differently, and it went deeper than the "law". Independent and ESPECIALLY unpopular thought was part of America.



We no longer live there.

If Kaepernick wants to wants to "protest", he certainly can, but nothing about "freedom of speech" means "freedom from consequence". The NFL could easily tell him that if he wants to take a seat, he can stay seated -- as in not come on the field of play again.

What we have now is a country where "The Party" decides what is acceptable speech and what is not. Increasingly, the consequences of that speech are handed down by party leaders, and the vast majority of the cowed populace follows in lock step. They await their "signals" from on high and they follow compliantly like the sheep they have chosen to be.

The don't want to get a label -- racist, homophobe, islamophobe, denier, etc because those labels have teeth. They can lose friends, family, even their jobs. Independence is no longer valued -- compliance is valued, and independence is seen as dangerous. Something that needs to be removed from sight. If TP says what you do is OK, it is ... if not, you suffer the consequences.



BO and company have regularly used the Constitution as toilet paper -- what counts as a "constitution" today is essentially "whatever TP says it is". They invoke it when they feel like it, and ignore it completely when they don't .



So in BOistan, you stand, sit, talk or shut up at the pleasure of TP -- and unless there is a miracle soon, that is the way it is going to be for a very long time.



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