We live in a new era.
For most of my adult life, the culture only moved in one direction: left. No matter how far-fetched the latest leftist fetish sounded when it was first mooted, the mainstream press and Hollywood would latch onto it and pretty soon, anyone who wasn't totally on board was denounced as a hateful bigot.
There is no doubt in my mind that if Hillary Clinton were president, the NFL's ritual disparagement of our National Anthem would have been far more widespread and players would have been compelled to participate.
Of course the crapweasels at places like National Review would have decried this change and urged the "compromise" of banning it before sporting events. That's what these guys do - come up with new and inventive ways to surrender all the while claiming to be "principled."
But Hillary didn't win. Trump did and he achieved that victory in large part by advocating policies that were far more popular than he is. His stance on the flag - as I noted earlier this week - is but the latest example.
I also called attention to the fact that political bondage fetishist and ex-Combat Lawyer David French was leading the Never Trump charge to endorse #TheResistance, making the "conservative case" for dishonoring America. The rest of the National Review crew swung into the conga line behind him, mindlessly joining the Hate America club.
And then a remarkable thing happened.
Rich Lowry - previously famous for his hilariously incorrect predictions about both the GOP primary and the general election - actually introduced common sense to his failing web site. To answer his question: "Yes, they would jump off a bridge if Trump said not to - that's why National Review is shedding readers"
Lowry isn't alone, of course. There has been a steady migration from Quisling GOP publications over the last few months. I was interested to note that intellectual heavyweight Victor Davis Hanson now appears at the openly pro-Trump American Greatness web magazine.
In related news, noted Never Trumper Jim Treacher has decided to give up blogging for the Daily Caller. I found this passage in his farewell post of particular interest:
At the beginning of the year I was told to go from three posts a day to five (I did), on the theory that it would boost my traffic (it didn’t). I just don’t know how else to get more clicks. Recently I was given a month to do so, but I can’t crank out even more posts in a day, day after day, without sacrificing the minimal level of quality my readers expect. [Emphasis added.]
Treacher's blog (The DC Trawler) used to be a regular stop for me. But then he went Never Trump and I found him tedious. Obviously others did the same.
He couldn't increase his clicks because he had alienated his audience. This is the problem that the Never Trumpers have been dealing with since their inception: The market for anti-Trump invective is saturated. If one wants a "sick burn" of Trump, they are everywhere to be seen. According to the left, Trump has been "destroyed" more times than the Detroit Lions, and yet unlike them, he keeps winning.
Treacher used to be competing in a much less populated marketplace. Now he's a second-rate commodity. I say second-rate because like the rest of the Never Trumpers, he never goes all-in on his hate for The Donald. In this sense, he's got the worst of both worlds - tepid criticism of his own side. Who needs that?
And it doesn't matter how much more often he posts, people just don't care.
The NFL is repeating the same mistake. There is a massive surplus of political correct activities and programming out there. Whole channels provide non-stop 24-hour hatefests. The world didn't need another one - and certainly not in what should have been an area free of politics to begin with.
TV ratings are down. Ticket sales are down. Advertisers are getting nervous. As others have pointed out, the fact that the NFL is the one having crisis meetings rather than the White House speaks volumes.
What has happened here is that the ratchet has slipped back to the right and people don't know how to deal with it. The left tried to take over the NFL and Trump led the counterattack. His administration is doing this on a variety of fronts, including higher education.
The great freakout we are seeing is the panic of a hitherto invincible army tasting defeat for the first time in a generation.
After only a week, the NFL is seeking terms for an armistice. Lowry may be doing the same for his beleaguered publication. Treacher is calling it quits.
It's an amazing thing to see.
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