TODD: So it’s back. They can’t stop talking about Colin Kaepernick. Tim Tebow got a second NFL tryout, and people of course went… I love this word so much. I love saying “apoplectic.” I don’t know if I say it correctly. Apoplectic? They went nuts. (laughing) I have confirmation from the broadcast engineer, Mike Maimone, that I’ve said “apoplectic” the right way.
They just went nuts that Tebow got this chance. Tim Tebow’s probably not gonna be an NFL quarterback. Colin Kaepernick’s probably no longer going to be an NFL quarterback. Neither of them achieved the greatness they would have wanted in the sport. One of them is not bitter about that. One of them is of good cheer.
You didn’t vote. Maybe you do now. You’re not a person who’s deeply educated about these things, by choice, inning. And when you wear socks that say, “All cops are pigs,” well, that’s also speech. But taking a knee is not speech. It’s a demonstration. Tim Tebow took a knee but for other reasons.
I mean, think of this. You got two guys who wanted to be NFL greats, two guys who didn’t quite make it that level. Sure, one got closer to greatness on the field, and one of those guys took a knee in prayer, and the media hated him for it. And the other guy wore those “all cops are pigs” socks. He took a knee during the national anthem, and the media loved him for it. Rush compares Tim Tebow and Colin Kaepernick the way only the Maha could.
RUSH: The NFL has not hired Colin Kaepernick. Colin Kaepernick walked out on the San Francisco 49ers. He had a contract. He walked out on it. He doesn’t want to play with them anymore. He becomes a free agent. He has no offers. The sports Drive-Bys are outraged.
They think he’s being blackballed because of his politics. He may be — and if he is, the people blackballing him have every right to do so. What do you think the First Amendment’s free speech clause grants you? The right to say what you want politically? You’re right. It does. Now, the First Amendment says that government cannot stop you from saying what you want. It doesn’t say the San Francisco 49ers can’t. If you work someplace, your First Amendment rights do fall under the policies of your owner or of your boss or of your workplace.
‘Cause they’ve never thought of it that way. Yeah, you can say what you want, but nobody has to listen to you. The second thing is you have the right to say what you want, you have the right to believe what you want, but you do not have the right to not suffer any consequences from it. So if you are going to make a case as a player in the NFL that your country is rotten, that your country mistreats people of color — if you’re gonna say what Kaepernick said — then you’ve got to be willing to accept the consequences of what you said!
How many people do you think believe that Kaepernick should be applauded for courage and not have to suffer consequences for what he said? How does that work? Everybody… You know, there’s a price. There are consequences. There’s gonna a reaction. Not everybody’s gonna agree with everything that anybody else says. Kaepernick is not a victim. But they’re trying to portray him as a victim. “He went out and he said courageous things; he had the courage to criticize his own country,” and for that he should be made a hero? That’s not how it works.
Nobody gets to… You don’t get to go out and say provocative things and then be immune from criticism or consequences. Everybody is. And so that factors into what you’re gonna do. If you’re gonna go out and you’re gonna say things that are gonna make it harder for the people who might hire you to do business, it makes perfect sense they wouldn’t hire you. Now you add to that that these people may believe you’re not any good anymore. But if Kaepernick isn’t being hired because of what he said, that’s perfectly normal.
Anybody who’s been in the free speech business understands this the first time they ever say something controversial. Why do you think most people shut up? Why do you think most people “don’t want to go there”? They don’t want the reaction. They don’t want the controversy. They don’t want the criticism. So they don’t say anything. They whimper around. They may react when somebody else does, but most people will stand or sit mute — and the reason is because they see what happens.
Now, some of the responses, some of the circumstances are not fair, admittedly. But in a free and open society with the First Amendment guaranteeing political speech, there are consequences, and there are ramifications. The point is, the First Amendment does not grant anybody immunity from the consequences of what they say or from the reactions from people to what they say — and Kaepernick is being held up as somebody who should be immune. “He should not be held accountable for what he said because we happen to agree with what he said,” the media says. That’s not how it works.
Like you may value what Tebow is and what he says, and you might not think so much of Kaepernick and what he says or does. But in both instances, there are consequences for behavior and for reactions. You know, if you want to be on radio or TV? That’s what Kaepernick ought to do. I think what he ought to do, Kaepernick ought to get a show on YouTube and go to town. He can say anything he wants; Google would celebrate it. (Google owns YouTube.) But Jim Brown said it. Jim Brown said (summarized), “Make up your mind what you want to do: You want to play football or you want to be an activist?”
It’s that simple.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
TODD: There are happenings in Hollywood that are also very good news for us. It is. And we had a drive-by caller, Bernie from Syracuse, say that we are not the United States of America; we’re the untied states of America. I think that’s a really good way to say what has been done to America, ’cause it didn’t “happen.” None of it’s organic. It’s all purposeful.
Their masters. They’re themselves, their masters, their money, their ideological nonsense, the choosing to be hypnotized by, “We must be completely diverse by not believing in men and women. That will make you diverse. We must be completely diverse by calling out for responsibility only, only for speech we disagree with.”
So the reason it’s good news is, when they start to see their work canceled –when they could no longer have their self-congratulatory award shows — they may get fully rewoke as into reality. I mean, how many times did Rush discuss with us what the NFL and Hollywood are doing to themselves by chasing wokeism? If only they had, you know, some enduring principles by which to live.
RUSH: Anybody watch the college football championship game last night? Donald Trump walks on the field at the 40 yard line for the national championship game, national anthem, singing along, heart covered by his right hand, and, I mean, the place erupted in cheers. Now, the Drive-By Media is saying there were some boos. I haven’t talked to anybody who heard any boos. Now, there had to be some of course, I mean, the place was filled and the law of averages is such. But the cheers and the support for Trump is overwhelming.
And, you know, ESPN’s televising the thing, it had to just destroy them to see Trump show up and then to have this kind of reception and this kind of support that he got and for showing up in the national anthem and standing and putting his hand over his heart and singing along with it. And then you find out after the game last night that the college football ratings were through the roof.
Meanwhile, ratings for the NFL wild card weekend were down double-digit percentage-wise all four games Saturday and Sunday. And Trump in a little bit of a microcosm last night, the college football championship, illustrated exactly why. In addition to the college football ratings being way up where there are no kneelers, where there is no disrespect for the American flag or the country, the NFL playoff games double digital ratings decrease and the Golden Globes ratings were down from 2017. They fell to a six-year low.
The forgotten people in flyover country do not want to see all of these wealthy millionaires lecturing them on how horrible they are and how horrible the country is. It doesn’t compute. Your average, ordinary American watching Hollywood celebrities with their vast displays of wealth and power, you know, just entertain us and go home. Don’t preach to us. What gives you the right to preach to us? They can try it, they can do it, but it isn’t working, and the more they preach in actual movies and in their award shows, you see what is happening.
And what is being demonstrated here is that people are demonstrating, proving slowly that they can live without Hollywood awards shows.
And more and more people apparently can live without the National Football League. Now, what if that establishes as a habit? What if this establishes a new normal for people to begin tuning out these two entities that have become major institutions, dominant institutions in America.
And this I don’t think is a one-year one-off. It’s not something peculiar to 2017. This I think is a major trend. Look, if this were happening in your business, if you were losing audience like this, if you were losing customers like this, you would be deathly concerned. You’d be panicking. You’d be working on ways to reverse it. These people aren’t. They are doubling down every time the American people show their displeasure by walking away from these events and not watching them. This is typical of the liberals, by the way.
TODD: And now their ego-fest is canceled for the year.
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