Jack Hunter
Forget about how you feel about the NFL protest controversy. Forget, for a moment, about whether you agree with the players, Donald Trump or have some other position. Forget about policy brutality, the original reason for the protest. Forget about patriotism or lack thereof.
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Is there a bigger snowflake than President Trump?
Seriously. Is there anyone in public service who has more of an unrestrained thirst to comment on seemingly every political and cultural event? And in the most unpresidential and divisive ways possible?
Why did Trump have to comment on this?
The word “snowflake” has become a popular pejorative for conservatives to use against liberals any time the left becomes offended about virtually anything. It is meant to imply that the left is uniquely sensitive in ways that are ridiculous, illogical and comically out-of-step with how most responsible adults operate in the real world. Such accusations by the right against the left are frequently accurate.
But is there anyone more sensitive than Trump? Is there anyone of his stature who injects himself into every topic of debate with the finesse and forethought of an eighth grader?
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Similar to the right calling the left “snowflakes,” Trump’s online outbursts often exhibit a particular brand of right-wing political correctness. The Cato Institute’s Alex Nowrasteh writes at the Washington Post, “conservatives have their own, nationalist version of PC, their own set of rules regulating speech, behavior and acceptable opinions.”
“I call it ‘patriotic correctness,” he adds.
“It’s a full-throated, un-nuanced, uncompromising defense of American nationalism, history and cherry-picked ideals,” Nowrasteh writes. “Central to its thesis is the belief that nothing in America can’t be fixed by more patriotism enforced by public shaming, boycotts and policies to cut out foreign and non-American influences.”
For Trump, NFL players ran afoul of patriotic correctness and therefore should be condemned. Forget about that time in 2013 when Trump said President Obama had no business lecturing the Washington Redskins about their name, all that matters in his tweets is the emotion in the moment — not logic, not consistency and certainly not statesmanship.
Trump has been such a snowflake about so many different things, it’s hard to keep up.
I understand and empathize with NFL players who feel morally compelled to raise the issue of police brutality. I can also see how football fans might not appreciate the sport becoming so politicized, or perhaps even see these protests as nothing more than anti-American sentiment.
But I don’t understand why Donald Trump has to get involved. The president’s undisciplined sensitivity almost always makes every situation worse.
