One of the great inherent powers of the presidency is its power to set the national agenda — “the bully pulpit,” as Teddy Roosevelt called it. So when Donald Trump gazed across the political landscape, at difficult, complex issues such as North Korea, the devastation of Puerto Rico, health care, tax reform — where did he focus the national conversation?
He took aim at the actions of a small group of African-American athletes who for months now have engaged in a quiet, peaceful protest of police brutality against minority groups. They believe, with cause, that this great country, our country, is not living up to its best values. By taking a knee during the national anthem, they found a way to communicate that belief.
Yet somehow, despite its origins as a protest against racial injustice, Trump claims this controversy “has nothing to do with race.” That’s a lie. Trump deliberately chose African-Americans as his target, he chose the Alabama venue from which to launch this campaign, he chose the angry, accusatory language. He did all that because he knows instinctively where the fault lines run in American society, and how to cleave us.
It has been his sole claim to political genius. He knew precisely what it meant to claim that Barack Obama, our first black president, was not a true American but instead a Kenyan who thus had no right to be president. He knew the power of a ban on Muslim immigration, of the hatefully false claim that thousands of American Muslims had danced in joy after the attacks of Sept. 11, that Mexican immigrants are largely rapists and criminals, that there were very fine people among the neo-Nazis chanting “Jews will not replace us.”
So in a speech Friday night, he once again placed the wedge in the crack, drew back his sledgehammer, and drove it home.
“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘get that son of a bitch off the field right now? He is fired!’?”
Trump has continued to hammer away on Twitter and elsewhere, and he has done so using language that ensures the issue remains inflamed. He doesn’t try to persuade or use reason. He demands submission, knowing that it is the one thing that his opponents can never give him. The NFL and its players “must respect” the flag and anthem, he says. The NFL “must tell them to stand.” Those who choose to kneel instead “must be fired immediately.” They cannot be “allowed” to keep doing this, it is “not acceptable.”
Just to be clear, the players aren’t spitting on the flag or burning it. They aren’t chanting or interrupting the singing of the anthem. By the simple, silent act of kneeling, they hope to force the rest of us to think about things that make us uncomfortable, that we would prefer to ignore because maybe, just maybe, they call into question whether this really is a country that delivers “liberty and justice for all.”
The NFL, to its credit, has decided that it will not submit to Trump, nor will it require its players to do so. In fact, some 150 players took a knee or raised their fists this weekend, and none will be fired. And if the target of the original protest has expanded to become Trump himself, well, he’s fine with that too. I’m sure it pleases him to no end, because in his eyes it means his strategy is working.
This is barely coded race-baiting, and by using the national anthem and the American flag to cloak his own ugliness, Trump does them far more disrespect than a player on bended knee ever could.
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