At the beginning of the 2016 NFL season, the talk is less about football and more about a single player. Colin Kaepernick is his name and he is a backup quarterback for the San Francisco 49’ers. Kaepernick is an adopted half white, half black native of California and has played football and baseball his entire life. So what makes him the talk of the entire sports, media and political worlds right now? Kaepernick has decided to kneel and not stand for the singing of the United States’ national anthem at the start of every NFL game. Kaepernick says he will not, “show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.” Kaepernick has explained several times in interviews that he does not dislike the military or is ungrateful for the many who have served this country. He has also explained that he still “loves” his country, but wants everyone within it to be treated equally.
With that being said, Kaepernick has received flak for this move from other players, sports commentators and politicians. All those people who have criticized and have attacked Kaepernick have a right to their opinion, but many, especially some conservative politicians, hold a double standard with issues like this. For example, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump weighed in on Kaepernick by saying, “I think it’s personally not a good thing, I think it’s a terrible thing. And, you know, maybe he should find a country that works better for him. Let him try, it won’t happen.” It is ironic that a “conservative” who claims to believe in individual freedom and has said, “I love people’s rights,” is disgusted by someone using their own personal freedom. Similarly, an even more staunch conservative, Republican Senator Ted Cruz, who cherishes, “the right of every man to do as they will here in America,” criticized Kaepernick as a, “rich, spoiled athlete.” These two men are only a few of the many politicians who have attacked Kaepernick over the last three weeks, but these two represent a common ideology in political circles.
How could politicians who claim to love individual freedom and love standing up for the rights of every American turn and do the complete opposite when someone exercises that right? The answer to why they do not support this act is because it is contrary to their beliefs and their politics, which could end up hurting their political message. And there lies the unfortunate hypocrisy, some conservatives love and support individual rights until it is contrary to their beliefs. If Messrs. Trump and Cruz, and others like them, really did care about individual freedom they would acknowledge Kaepernick's right to kneel and then discuss whether his protest is valid, instead of criticizing the fact that he is kneeling in the first place. When they do that only then can they claim they are true supporters of individual freedom.
