{"id":1505412,"date":"2022-06-06T13:21:27","date_gmt":"2022-06-06T17:21:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1505412"},"modified":"2022-06-06T13:21:29","modified_gmt":"2022-06-06T17:21:29","slug":"thaddeus-g-mccotter-on-the-question-of-kaepernick-kapler-kerr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/thaddeus-g-mccotter-on-the-question-of-kaepernick-kapler-kerr\/","title":{"rendered":"Thaddeus G. McCotter: On the Question of Kaepernick, Kapler, &#038; Kerr"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthaddeus-g-mccotter-on-the-question-of-kaepernick-kapler-kerr%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1505412&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Those who support the First Amendment and oppose the Left\u2019s cancel culture have had their principles put to the test, due to recent developments surrounding the trio of Kaepernick, Kapler, and Kerr.\u00a0 (For the non-sports enthusiast, Kaepernick, Kapler, and Kerr isn\u2019t a law firm.)<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Colin Kaepernick is the former National Football League quarterback who in 2017 sparked controversy by kneeling for the national anthem and spouting sundry leftist positions, including support for Fidel Castro\u2019s barbarous regime and denigrating the police.\u00a0 He ultimately sued the league for having been blackballed due to his political views and settled out of court.\u00a0 Recently, however, Mr. Kaepernick received a <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.nbcsports.com\/2022\/05\/30\/peter-king-colin-kaepernick-raiders-nfl-future\/\">workout\/tryout<\/a> with the peripatetic Las Vegas Raiders.\u00a0 To date, the team has yet to offer him a contract.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Gabe Kapler is the manager of Major League Baseball\u2019s San Francisco Giants.\u00a0 In 2020, he followed Mr. Kaepernick\u2019s lead and took a knee during the national anthem.\u00a0 In the wake of the Uvalde school shooting, he announced he\u00a0will stay in the team\u2019s clubhouse during the national anthem until he felt \u201cbetter about the direction of the country.\u201d\u00a0 However, out of respect for our fallen service members, Mr. Kapler did take the field for the anthem on Memorial Day.\u00a0 He has further donated to a group seeking to end gun violence and to one protecting veterans\u2019 health.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Steve Kerr is the head coach of the National Basketball Association\u2019s Golden State Warriors.\u00a0 He has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/sports\/warriors-steve-kerr-giants-gabe-kapler-national-anthem-protests-uvlade\">applauded<\/a> Mr. Kapler\u2019s public protest: \u201cI always support any form of peaceful protest. \u00a0That\u2019s what our country is founded on.\u00a0 I think it\u2019s great that he is making his own statement. I think everyone has to do it their own way, and that\u2019s the way Gabe chose and I applaud him for it.\u201d\u00a0 In the past, on his part, Mr. Kerr has riled many with his decidedly left of center stances on such various contentious issues.<\/p>\n<p>The purpose here is not to rehash the arguments as to why the policy positions behind these public protests are misguided; nor why these protests are needlessly divisive and narcissistic.\u00a0 It is to reveal the Left\u2019s hypocrisy regarding free speech; and to call attention to the <em>Right\u2019s<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>While he did not make the distinction, one can assume Mr. Kerr\u2019s approbation for Mr. Kapler and, ergo, Mr. Kaepernick\u2019s peaceful public protests differentiate between an individual or a group\u2019s manner and their message.\u00a0 Obviously, Mr. Kerr will not and should not applaud a peaceful public protest by the Ku Klux Klan.\u00a0 Indeed, no one in their right mind should applaud a public protest by any group espousing hate, however peaceful.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, within Mr. Kerr\u2019s remarks is the presumption peaceful public protests are largely the purview of the Left.\u00a0 What else could explain his being purblind to the overbreadth of his position?\u00a0 This presumption is the kernel of the Left\u2019s hypocrisy regarding peaceful public protests and, in fact, reveals the entirety and enormity of the Left\u2019s cancel culture: they, alone, are allowed to protest; and, increasingly, whether it be peaceful or not.\u00a0 (\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/opinion\/abortion-summer-of-rage-pro-choice-pro-life-kristan-hawkins\">Summer of Rage<\/a>,\u201d \u201cungovernable,\u201d and \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/courts\/shut-it-down-radical-leftwing-group-plans-to-blockade-supreme-court\/\">Shut Down DC<\/a>\u201d ring a bell?).<\/p>\n<p>Consider how the Left expended so much effort to risibly pretend \u2013 including the attempt to argue that arson and looting aren\u2019t \u201cviolence\u201d \u2013 that the 2020 riots were \u201cmostly peaceful protests\u201d; and had never espoused any racial animus.\u00a0 It is breathtaking to behold the lengths the Left will go to conceal their chaotic, destructive ideology, actions, and hypocrisy.<\/p>\n<p>Both at the time of Mr. Kaepernick\u2019s initial protest and throughout the ensuing protests of others, including Mr. Kapler, the principled position has been to respect their constitutional right to engage in peaceful public protest.\u00a0 But one can also engage in their own act of free speech by condemning the manner and\/or message they chose.<\/p>\n<p>This is the crux of the Left\u2019s performative preening on the issue of peaceful public protests and their cancel culture.\u00a0 They deliberately conflate their opponents\u2019 counter-arguments with violence and an overall opposition to free speech.\u00a0 Under this erroneous definition, only the Left is allowed to protest; and, in fact, exercise any free speech at all.\u00a0 To these Maoist Red Guard wannabes, even \u201csilence is violence.\u201d\u00a0 Should someone who is not a Leftist stray from their party line, the cancel culture awaits to end careers and suck them down the memory hole.\u00a0 It is why one rarely witnesses a Leftist publicly decry the firing and canceling of a non-Leftist professor for say, writing an article opposing race essentialism.<\/p>\n<p>But this does not mean the Right is allowed to join in the unconscionable cancel culture.\u00a0 When Mr. Kaepernick first knelt during the national anthem, many on the Right demanded he be fired from his job and be barred from ever again playing professional football.\u00a0 Now, fortunately to a far lesser degree, some on the Right argue that Mr. Kapler be removed from his managerial duties.\u00a0 This is exactly how the Left\u2019s cancel culture deals with its opponents.\u00a0 If one truly believes in free speech and opposes the cancel culture, one must refrain from demanding those with whom they politically disagree must lose their jobs, when said views are distinct from the duties and the performance of it.\u00a0 Consequently, one can support Mr. Kaepernick, Mr. Kapler, Mr. Kerr, and our hypothetical professor\u2019s manner of protest; and still exercise our free speech rights to denounce or applaud their messages.<\/p>\n<p>For those on the Right to do otherwise would be to participate in the Left\u2019s hypocrisy and cancel culture that they correctly condemn; moreover, it would send the deleterious message to the vast majority of Americans who loathe the cancel culture that neither side of the political spectrum can be trusted to defend their God-given, constitutionally recognized and protected right to free speech and to petition government for the redress of grievances.\u00a0 And in that ensuing tit-for-tat war of cancellation, the only one who wins are the censorious opponents of free speech, freedom of conscience and, indeed, freedom itself.<\/p>\n<p><strong>As he describes himself:\u00a0 The product of a misspent youth, the Hon. Thaddeus G. McCotter (M.C., Ret.) is a guitarist, author, occasional radio co-host, and recovering politician.\u00a0 He is a former U.S. Congressman from Michigan having represented that state\u2019s 11th Congressional district from 2003-2012.<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"t-contain t-pos-cntr t-pad-top t-marg-top t-pad-15px-lt   t-pad-bot author-block\">\n<div class=\"author\">\n<div class=\"thumbnail\">\n<div class=\"image border\"><source type=\"image\/webp\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/humanevents.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/TomShillueSketch-Raccoon-Apocalypse-McCotter-Thaddeus-G-150x150.jpg\" height=\"96\" width=\"96\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"summary\">\n                <span>Written By:<\/span><\/p>\n<h4 class=\"t-pad-33pc-bot t-txt-blk\"><a href=\"https:\/\/humanevents.com\/author\/thaddeusmccotter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/humanevents.com\/author\/thaddeusmccotter\/\" title=\"Posts by Hon. Thaddeus G. McCotter\" rel=\"author\">Hon. Thaddeus G. McCotter<\/a><\/a><\/h4>\n<p>The product of a misspent youth (as he describes it), the Hon. Thaddeus G. McCotter (M.C., Ret.) is a guitarist, author, occasional radio co-host, and recovering politician.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nHe is a former U.S. Congressman from Michigan, having represented that state\u2019s 11th Congressional district from 2003 to 2012. From 2007 to 2011, he served as Chair of the House Republican Policy Committee. A native of Michigan, McCotter also served in the Michigan State Senate and on the Wayne County Commission.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Those who support the First Amendment and oppose the Left\u2019s cancel culture have had their principles put to the test, due to recent developments surrounding the trio of Kaepernick, Kapler,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":498,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1505412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1505412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/498"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1505412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1505412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1505412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1505412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1505412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}