I’m not going to post a long essay sharing my thoughts about Trump demanding the firing of those ‘sons of bitches’ professional sports players who refuse to salute the flag in protest. What has already been said here, here, and here gets to the heart of why Trump and his supporters are wrong, and here is a take on why Trump strokes his thin ego by inciting controversy. Have at it.

My interest lies in the fixation with American symbols as it relates to the flag and the election win of Roy Moore, a religious racists, in the Alabama Republican primary. As an aside, even Trump didn’t support Moore, which alone is a good and alarming reason to reject his candidacy. But here is a very detailed accounting of Moore’s background and beliefs. Read it with the understanding that Moore was elected by people who believe in his ideas and/or/both do not find his racism disqualifying (the and/or/both is for those who just can’t stomach Moore included in the same category as David Duke).

Ever since the NFL was commissioned by the military to help recruitment efforts a direct link between sports and war emerged. For some war is sport. Which is why there was such a visceral reaction from some NFL fans to the players protests. In the same week the false past propaganda, the idea that the US and its people were once something we never were, was herald by Roy Moore in his victory speech by promising to return America back to a time of morality and virtue.

A virtuous and moral society is not what historians would call the America of the past, and neither is it today. The election of a womanizer and bigot to the presidency is proof enough that the majority of Americans are easily manipulated by fear. A far cry from being morally and intellectually superior. Since the beginning of Trump’s presidential campaign the juxtaposition between where propaganda and a false past meet in America’s political and social zeitgeist is startling clearer.

By saluting the flag and giving homage to the symbols of American dominance, minorities allow whites to view the tainted past with reverence. Not because blacks and other minorities were treated as second class citizens, but because whites aren’t being made to care that blacks and minorities had been treated as second class citizens.

In the 60s when the boycotts, sit ins, and marches started many whites were annoyed by the protests then as they are now. Not because they agreed with white supremacists, but because they didn’t want to be made to care, let alone think about how someone else felt they were being treated. Remember Americans like it mean.

Roy Moore and his supporters want to go back to a time of collective and vast ignorance to racism. A time of white male dominance is for them when American society was at its  moral and virtuous best. NFL fans want social conscious protest to not intrude on their good time. Both are symbols of the need to be blissfully ignorant and dangerous to American democracy.