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Colin Kaepernick’s latest provocation — telling host Adam Friedland that “The Star-Spangled Banner” is “a bad song” and “wack” during a podcast interview — is less about music and more about baiting a divided country for attention. His offhand dismissal arrived in the middle of a press tour and immediately reignited the same cultural firestorm he lit a decade ago.
Americans who served under that flag bled and died while the left debates semantics; veteran sacrifice is not fodder for celebrity takes. Kaepernick’s kneeling protest in 2016 was a political act that launched a national debate about respect and dissent, and he himself has acknowledged the chain of events that followed, including his absence from the NFL since 2017.
On Newsmax’s American Agenda, women’s sports advocate Sophia Lorey and Super Bowl champion Tyrone Poole pushed back hard, reminding viewers that patriotism is not a trendy opinion but a binding civic duty. Their blunt message — that people who repeatedly denigrate our national symbols should think long and hard about whether they belong in American public life — reflects a sentiment shared by millions of hardworking citizens.
Make no mistake: Kaepernick is touring a narrative as much as he is promoting a memoir, and the optics of calling the anthem a “bad song” during media appearances smell of opportunism. Whether you agree with his politics or not, elevating this kind of provocation under the guise of art criticism is a cynical attempt to keep himself in headlines while the rest of the country gets on with real life.
Conservatives are right to defend the anthem, the flag, and the men and women who defend them; patriotism is not performative, it’s sacrificial. If someone wants to argue for policy changes or social reform, do it with respect and constructive debate — not by belittling the song that binds a nation together and insults those who fought to preserve it.
Patriotic Americans should turn this moment into clarity: love of country isn’t optional, and public figures who choose provocation over gratitude should expect to be held to account in the marketplace of ideas. We will keep standing for the anthem and for the brave Americans it honors, and we will not apologize for insisting that respect for national symbols matters.
