CNN contributors Symone Sanders and Ben Ferguson engaged in a heated debate Friday evening over the recent epidemic of NFL ‘take-a-knee’ protests and ordinary Americans’ negative reaction to them, as evidenced by a new CNN poll showing a 49 percent to 43 percent margin of disapproval.
The conservative Ferguson and the liberal Sanders appeared with guest host Jim Sciutto on CNN’s Out Front, and crossed swords over the meaning of the poll numbers.
Highlighting the 60 percent who said President Trump was wrong for publicly criticizing the protesters, Sanders pointed out the “number of people” who believe the players are protesting the national anthem, when “that’s not what they are protesting.” To Sanders, the issue has been “conflated” with Donald Trump and his weighing in on the issue.
“The president was right and the NFL players were wrong,” Ferguson responded. “It doesn’t matter what you’re protesting, and the American people are saying this, you don’t disrespect the flag and turn it into your own personal moment. You want to do something before or after the game, you want to do something else, but during that moment it is wrong and the American people are saying this is wrong and it doesn’t matter what they’re protesting. It’s inappropriate at that moment.”
Ferguson did acknowledge the fact that Americans are more divided when it comes to President Trump’s verbiage.
“When you see the majority of Americans saying it’s wrong to protest during the National Anthem, that’s where they’re backing the president,” said Ferguson. “When they made it personal, it seems there’s more divide there.”
While the usage of the term “SOB” might not have been wise, the president wasn’t labeling the entire NFL with that brush, only players who deserve the term by their actions.
Sanders insisted the president “attacked players of color.”
“This is not about race as much you want it to be,” Ferguson said.
To which Sanders responded, “[Colin] Kaepernick took a knee for injustice, for racism, for police brutality, and white supremacy.”
The liberal commentator also pointed out a common liberal talking point when it comes to this issue – that 70 percent of NFL players are black. It’s a self-defeating argument, of course, about like saying that 70 percent of multi-millionaires in any field or industry are a particular color or ethnic group. These are pampered millionaires.
Sanders then tried to make the point that the NFL had a policy, but “no rule” on standing during the national anthem, insisting that “players can protest in their own way.”
Which begs the question: What employer on the planet would allow these types of protests at the workplace and on the clock?
Then answer, unless you’re the administrators at Berkeley, is a resounding “hell no.”
But for some reason, the NFL is a different animal, filled with pampered millionaires who would have countless outlets to express themselves articulately on whatever issue they wished, yet insist on using their their workplace and their employer’s time to publicly insult their nation, their flag, and their national anthem.
Hell, if they were courageous and articulate enough, and not just wanting to make a cheap point, any of them could speak to Red State America directly via a platform offered multiple times by none other than Fox News’ Sean Hannity.
But no, ‘taking a knee’ is too easy, to convenient, and it doesn’t interfere with playing video games, chasing women, or whatever else these guys do during their free time.
“It’s no different than wearing pink in October to highlight the issue of breast cancer awareness,” Sanders says.
Seriously? Actually, it would be more like conducting a protest in front of your employer’s office, on the clock, while wearing a pussy hat.
“Disrespecting the American flag has nothing to do with race,” Ferguson shot back. “The majority of these players were protesting Donald Trump. So, again, to say that all of them are unified on Black Lives Matter or police brutality, the majority of these players did not stay in the locker room a year ago when that was the actual issue that Colin Kaepernick brought up.”
Sanders finished the exchange by calling Trump’s insistence that the NFL owners get their players “in line” a “dog whistle.”
“He said that the NFL owners need to get their players in line. If that’s not a dog whistle, I don’t know what is.”
“Not everything is race, as much as you want it to be,” Ferguson responded.
Indeed, calling President Trump a racist for taking a stand on this issue is akin to calling the majority of the country racist, which is an absurd and insulting claim on its face.
But liberals are quite used to making absurd claims. The tragedy is that so many people continue to believe them.
Watch the exchange below:
https://youtu.be/_m71hQ1CAYk
Op-ed views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of BizPac Review.
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