Sept. 27, 2017 - Rubin Report - Dave Rubin
08:00
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| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
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unidentified
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(upbeat music) | |
| Football season is upon us and apparently that means it's time to talk politics. | ||
| I really wish that we could separate sports and politics, or pretty much everything in politics, but somehow politics has infected every facet of American life. | ||
| Inserting politics into virtually everything we consume strikes me as a really bad sign as to what direction this country is heading. | ||
| This isn't to deny the feelings of the players who take the knee, but it is to acknowledge why people watch sports in the first place. | ||
| People turn to sports, video games and other entertainment to escape politics and the cold hard realities of life. | ||
| Now it seems that everywhere you turn, politics has reared its ugly head. | ||
| If you don't take a side and scream about it, or at least tweet about it, then you'll be tossed in as racist or as anti-American, depending on who's leveling the charge. | ||
| When our momentary escapes from reality, like sports, are taken away from us in exchange for more political bickering, we should all take a step back and assess what's really going on here. | ||
| Let's start with Trump. | ||
| Trump kicked this whole controversy off on Friday night at a speech in Alabama where he said that NFL owners should get rid of players who don't stand for the National Anthem. | ||
| He said, and I quote, Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. | ||
| He's fired. | ||
| He's fired. | ||
| End quote. | ||
| Let me be 100% crystal clear here. | ||
| Calling a football player or any other citizen a son of a bitch under any circumstances is not the type of language I'd like to hear from the highest office in the land. | ||
| As a free speech supporter, I do have major concerns about the chill factor around free speech when the President makes comments like this. | ||
| Personally, I'd much rather have a President who could share his own personal beliefs on the matter while still affirming the right of every citizen to protest While also acknowledging that private companies can tend to their employees however they see fit. | ||
| That's how this exchange is supposed to work in a free society. | ||
| The President can say whatever he wants, the football players can do whatever they want, the teams can respond as they see fit, and you, the viewer, can use your voice to share your feelings on all of it. | ||
| So again, to be clear here, even if Trump isn't saying or tweeting statements just as I'd like him to, he does have the exact same right to free speech the rest of us have. | ||
| If he tried to instruct federal agencies to punish players or football teams for exercising | ||
| their right to free speech, we would have an illegal act and most likely an impeachable | ||
| offense. | ||
| As far as I can see, he didn't do that, though he did intentionally inflame the situation | ||
| by getting as close to seeming to use government authority to silence people without quite | ||
| doing so. | ||
| Understanding that Trump said something, but didn't sign an executive action on it is an | ||
| important distinction, though, because words are not action even when those words are uttered | ||
| by the President of the United States. | ||
| And it's worth mentioning that these protests did start under President Obama, so while Trump has added fuel to the fire, the seeds of these protests had already been planted. | ||
| Now onto the players. | ||
| It is 100% within the player's right to exercise their free speech as they see fit. | ||
| While I personally would never kneel during the National Anthem, it is completely within their right to do so. | ||
| And for those of you who think that kneeling during the National Anthem is un-American or not the player's right, imagine for a moment what kind of country you'd be living in if people couldn't protest peacefully. | ||
| You may think that these players are misguided, or that they're mistaken, but imagine the society we'd be living in if the government could force people to stand for the National Anthem. | ||
| What else could the government force us to do against our will once we've given it that much power? | ||
| Of course, the players exercising their right to free speech must understand that their actions might have consequences as well. | ||
| This is the implicit exchange we all must make to live in a truly free society. | ||
| NFL teams can fine or suspend players as they see fit, and nobody has the inherent right to play in the NFL. | ||
| By the way, nobody has an inherent right to work at Google either, but I didn't see many of the people who are standing up for the players now also stand up for fired Google engineer James Damore when he voiced his opinion on Google's diversity program. | ||
| Interestingly, Damore was fired for doing exactly what the company had asked him to do, attend a diversity course and then share his opinion on it. | ||
| So to recap, Trump can say what he wants as long as he doesn't use his government influence to silence people, players can do what they want knowing that there could be repercussions, and teams can deal with the players however they see fit. | ||
| Alright, so now on to you, the public. | ||
| If football fans don't want to buy tickets or watch games because of the protests, well then at the end of the day, even the great American pastime of football is just a business. | ||
| Owners and management have the right, and actually the duty, to do what's best for their business. | ||
| If nobody is buying tickets, watching the games on TV, or buying merchandise, then there will be nobody to see the protests in the first place. | ||
| This is actually the beauty of capitalism. | ||
| Everyone from the president, to the owners, to the players, to the fans, all have the ability to exercise their speech as they see fit. | ||
| And if their speech isn't enough to make a dent in a cause they believe in, then they can still support a cause or not. | ||
| With their hard earned dollars. | ||
| This is freedom actually working right in front of our eyes, and virtually all of the media is making it seem like this is the end of civilization. | ||
| If you stand with Colin Kaepernick and the other players, then feel free to boycott the NFL. | ||
| If you don't like the American flag being disrespected by the players, then boycott the NFL. | ||
| I'd rather just watch some football, or in my case basketball, but you have the capacity and actually the right to do whatever you want. | ||
| To be very clear, again, I 100% stand by these players doing whatever they want to protest or not if that's what their conscience tells them to do. | ||
| I also stand by their employers to do what they feel is right for their business even if I don't agree with it and I do not want the government to pass any law which would impede on the rights of the players or any sports organization. | ||
| This position doesn't deny anyone's grievances or feelings, it actually maximizes personal responsibility, which is the cornerstone of a free society. | ||
| Like I said before, while I'd love politics out of sports and sports out of politics, it now seems that our president and our media isn't going to let that happen anytime soon. | ||
| I basically never watch SportsCenter anymore because it's an endless blotter of crime stories and politics, with some game highlights tossed in for good measure. | ||
| What those of us who want to respect our fellow citizens and the law can do, is to discuss the situation within the framework of what it truly means to be free. | ||
| Nobody has been fired because of their speech, although Kaepernick does remain a free agent, which goes back to that consequences thing. | ||
| No law has been passed to actually silence anyone, and we all have an equal chance to have our opinion heard. | ||
| While many would point only to the evils of our political system, this story is actually showing the strength of our democracy. | ||
| Don't like Trump's statements? | ||
| Don't vote for him. | ||
| Don't like the players who sat for the anthem? | ||
| Don't buy their jersey. | ||
| Sick of the whole damn thing? | ||
| Find something better to do than drink beer and watch football on a Sunday. | ||
| All of the discussion and debate around kneeling for the anthem and honoring the country is healthy, as long as it doesn't turn into violence and tyranny. | ||
| Commerheads can win this game as long as we stand for the principles of free speech and the right to a peaceful protest, even when we don't want to. | ||
| The second we set aside our principles, we're just picking a political team and rooting for our side as if it were a football game. |
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