It is Possible to Love America & Hate the Sitting President: Guest MINDSETTER™ Scott
Guest MINDSETTER™ Jonathan Scott
It is Possible to Love America & Hate the Sitting President: Guest MINDSETTER™ Scott
There are other things I don’t understand in sports, too. Let’s take the “controversy” that has blown up over the – well, let’s be blunt – freaking, butt-whooping dominance of the United States Women’s National Soccer Team in World Cup 2019.
It might be no secret to some that I have been a Republican operative and two time GOP Congressional nominee in the Ocean State. I was Patrick Kennedy’s last opponent. I lost big, of course, but I was happy to champion the US Constitution and freedom and American exceptionalism and the free market and all of that. I came to the Republican Party through Ronald Reagan and a guy named Jack Kemp. Kemp was “a dumb jock” who became a Congressman from NY and, later, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. If you make mid-six figures, he’s also the reason that you no longer pay 70 percent to the government in taxes.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTI bring up the “dumb jock” moniker because I’ve seen more than a few people say “I don’t need to hear these dumb jocks give us their political opinions. They should just shut up and play their games." You see… if you’ve been hiding in a hole recently (and who wouldn’t want to), you might have missed “the flag incident." Depending on who you talk to, “the flag incident” was either “a bunch of overpaid athletes playing a children’s game and using their spotlight to drop the US flag on the ground before stepping on it in an attempt to insult America”… or it was a harmless act, done in the middle of the excitement of celebrating a great moment in history.
Paint me in the latter camp.
Make no mistake, these ladies have been as vocal as they have been dominant. They began the hunt for the Cup with a lawsuit against US Soccer. They want equal pay to the men (who it should be noted have been solidly mediocre). Star player Megan Rapinoe mentioned, complete with “F-bomb” that she would not be visiting the White House. The team celebrated when they scored, like men do, and they dominated opponents in a way that many would cheer if it were the men’s team doing it… but it ain’t.
It’s women and that makes some people uneasy on the “new political right." It seems that “making America great” is not the same thing as “making America great again."
I posted on Facebook, the other day after I had seen a great deal of derogatory comments. In a nutshell, I said that, if you were rooting against the United States team because you were offended by their dislike of President Trump’s policies, then you should probably take a second look at the definition of “patriot." It is possible to love America and hate the sitting President. Many who are now spouting vitriol about our nation’s soccer team used that as their defense back when they were complaining about President Obama.
It’s just an ongoing dialogue that is missing a few words. “I don’t really want to hear dumb jocks talk about politics” really means “I don’t want to hear dumb jocks unless they agree with me." We’ve become so wrapped up in the concept that we’re right, that we’ve lost great opportunities to become truly great. Much of the real opposition is that these women had the temerity to speak up and ask for equal pay. Women “aren’t supposed to be dominant or even capable. They need a man for that” is really the unsaid piece. “America can’t be “great again” until all this talk of equity goes away." That’s different than the GOP that I came into. We believed in the US Constitution… and we believed that its’ freedoms belonged to EVERYONE regardless of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or country of origin. We believed in “government out of my boardroom, my bedroom, and out of my gun cabinet."
The most disturbing posts I’ve seen have not been the people who rooted against ‘Murica, to be honest. The demeaning comments about Rapinoe and her teammates have been far worse. When one drops “that thing looks like Lt Data from Star Trek," the writer is letting their sexism AND their homophobia show (they’re also dating themselves a bit, as the millennials are dropping a collective “huh”). And therein lies the rub – much of this is about those things. Sexism, misogyny, homophobia, racism, and xenophobia are part and parcel of the new argument if you listen very carefully. That comes out very clearly when you root against Team USA.
I’ve coached for years and I’ve always told my players that we don’t just build a better lacrosse program. We build leaders in the community. I expect them to be the ones who go INTO the burning building; the ones who stand up against injustice. I might not always agree with them… but I support and honor those who are willing to stick their head out of the foxhole and take the slings and arrows of “the arena." Some of my online cohort has called our nation’s soccer team “self-absorbed” and said that they didn’t compete for America. Nothing could be further from the truth. I’ve been there. When you compete for the US, you are painfully aware of the mantle you wear. It hangs over you and thickens the air around you. It also lifts you up. It gives you a bully pulpit to champion things like freedom.
These women were dominant. They accomplished what they accomplished for themselves, to be sure… but they did it for women, too. They did it for you. They did it for me, and they most certainly did it for the United States. They didn’t do it for the current President, however. I’m sorry if that triggers you… but this is what America looks like at its greatest.
Jonathan Scott is a former Rhode Island resident and was the RIGOP’s nominee for US Congress in RI’s First District in 2006 and 2008. He has coached for 30 plus years and is currently coaches lacrosse for a college summer club as well as at an independent school in NYC. He is a corporate social responsibility and crisis communications consultant and was recently named to the NY NJ Port Authority’s Terminal Advisory Council. He can be reached at [email protected].
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