Legend has it that, when Nixon won in 1972, NY Times film critic Pauline Kael said
I can’t believe Nixon won. I don’t know anyone who voted for him.
John Podhoretz found the precise quote that was actually worse: ‘I live in a rather special world. I only know one person who voted for Nixon. Where they are I don’t know. They’re outside my ken. But sometimes when I’m in a theater I can feel them.' it indicates that Kael was actually acknowledging her provincialism ...('I live in a rather special world') and from its perch expressing her distaste for the unwashed masses with whom she sometimes had to share a movie theater.
The Kaepernick Kerfuffle has exposed the same provincialism in the NFL and the NBA.
NFL player Colin Kaepernick ignited a movement where NFL players knelt in protest of the National Anthem and/or raised blackpower salutes.
In liberal reflex, owners praised them for doing so; and when President Trump criticized them, they arrogantly doubled down. Example: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell:
[Trump's]Divisive comments ...demonstrate an unfortunate lack of respect for our great game and all of our players, and a failure to understand the overwhelming force for good our clubs and players represent in our communities. [Emphasis added.] https://thefederalist.com/2017/09/23/nfl-commissioner-trump-criticism-nfl-players-shows-disrespect/
In their rush to judgment, the athletes and the unions and the presidents of the NBA and NFL have misread the situation. They think they are speaking for the popular belief. I think they are dead wrong.
The majority of Americans are appalled by these spoiled children’s disrespect for our flag and anthem. People will do anything to get to the US and these millionaire brats, whose "talent" is handling an inflated ball, claim America is an oppressor.
Like Pauline Kael, they live in a rather special world interacting only with people in that rather special world with them.
They got a rude awakening this weekend: fans booing the Colts, the Browns, the Ravens, the Jaguars, the Bills, and the ironically named Patriots.
there were shouts of “Stand up” as they knelt.
Bills fans booed any player on the field who kneeled during the anthem and began chanting “U-S-A.”
And, lo and behold, the Left's favorite tool, POLLS, did not work for them this time:
(via CBS Sports) In one poll, which was conducted by Reuters, 72 percent of Americans said that they thought Kaepernick's behavior was unpatriotic. Another 61 percent said that they do not 'support the stance Colin Kaepernick is taking and his decision not to stand during the national anthem' [Emphasis added.]
Not all sports support the protests. NASCAR’s Richard Petty:
Anybody that don’t stand up for that ought to be out of the country. Period... If they don’t appreciate where they’re at … what got them where they’re at? The United States.”
Perhaps NASCAR’s owners figure that their fan base isn’t all that keen on having 'a bunch of rich athletes talking about how oppressed they are by the country'
Ending on a high note: here is an inspiration: Alejandro Villanueva
"I don't know if the most effective way is to sit down during the national anthem with a country that's providing you freedom, providing you $16 million a year ... when there are black minorities that are dying in Iraq and Afghanistan for less than $20,000 a year." Villanueva, who is of Spanish descent, is a former U.S. Army Captain who served three active tours in Afghanistan and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for Valor — one of the highest individual awards given by the U.S. military. A West Point graduate, the Steelers left tackle sings every word of the national anthem before every game
Breaking news. Further evidence that America views things differently than those in that rather special world. Sales of Villanueva’s jersey are booming. http://www.breitbart.com/sports/2017/09/25/villanuevas-jersey-sales-skyrocket-after-anthem-stand/
Americans are hungering to feel proud and patriotic again.