If you were fine, or silent, over the first three panels but lost your shit over the last one, then you need to take a knee. You’re just as disgusting as the man-baby troglodyte who made these statements. What Donald Trump is doing is not uniting people. It’s purposely being divisive to suit his own political ambitions.

Trump claims athletes who are protesting are disparaging the flag, the National Anthem, and our veterans. I don’t believe a draft-dodging bully who claimed John McCain is only a war hero because he was captured and that he “likes people who weren’t captured,” who disparages Gold Star families, and currently owns a Purple Heart he did not earn, is an authority on other people disrespecting our veterans.

Trump once criticized President Obama for voicing an opinion on the Redskins’ name. Trump said it was “nonsense” for the president to involve himself. Yet, here he is calling for athletes to be fired and for his sycophants to boycott the NFL.

Conservatives called Obama “divisive” for weighing on the Trayvon Martin case and when a white cop arrested a black man for trying to enter his own home. I don’t hear them throwing the d-word around when Trump creates controversies by attacking black athletes, women, talk show hosts, Broadway plays, comedians, mayors of foreign cities, journalists, and other incidents too numerous to name. This is conservative’s hypocrisy.

Several NFL owners who supported Trump and contributed financially to his election, like the owner of the New England Patriots, are surprised by Trump’s attack on their athletes and their sport. It’s like Trump’s racism is a new thing that only showed up last Friday…and not something he’s been waving around since the 1980s. For these people, Trump’s racism is not a deal-breaker until it hits them close to home. These people should have taken a knee to Trump before it got too late. Grass stains on your knees is a lot easier to get out than blood on your hands.

Trump claims this isn’t about race. Yet, he’s attacking mostly African-Americans protesting injustice toward African-Americans. A black athlete kneeling during the National Anthem is a larger outrage to Donald Trump than Nazis killing peaceful protesters. But like in both cases, Trump is playing to his base. He doesn’t criticize Nazis because he doesn’t want to offend his base. He’ll attack black people because his racist base eats it up.

Attacking black football players wasn’t enough for Trump over the weekend. He uninvited NBA champions, the Golden State Warriors from visiting the White House after their star, Stephen Curry expressed he didn’t want to go. It’s hard to tell who Trump is more concerned with, Kim Jong Un, actress Kristen Stewart, or Stephen Curry.

If you disagree with the athletes and believe no one should sit or kneel during the anthem, but you understand their protests, then I can respect your opinion. If you disagree with them, believe they shouldn’t have the right to express themselves, and that they should be fired, then I don’t respect your opinion. I especially do not respect you if you’re upset over black athletes wanting equality, while you have never expressed concern over what they’re protesting. And, if you deflected for Nazis, like our president has, then don’t tell me what America is supposed to be, or if we don’t like then we should move to another country. You’re what’s wrong with this country.

In case you haven’t noticed, Trump hasn’t even mentioned what the athletes are protesting. It’s like his brain stopped at “black.” If you have argued against the protests without mentioning their cause, then your brain stopped at “black” too.

You would think someone who claims he’s about jobs and the economy wouldn’t be calling for a boycott of an American industry. Trump wants NFL games to be as sparsely attended as the games were for that USFL football team he once owned.

It was heartening to see athletes, coaches, owners, black and white, stand together against Trump. This nation is about freedom, not nationalism, and not a place where we tell people to shut up because their viewpoint makes you uncomfortable. Trump can have an opinion on people protesting, but he needs to understand the full issue and not use them as a distraction because he doesn’t want to focus on North Korea or the disaster in Puerto Rico, or the fact his candidate is about to lose in Alabama, where Trump started this crap.

While in Alabama, Trump was playing to his racist base. It’d be nice if his base would take a knee.

I too have a problem with people being unpatriotic. Trump and his sycophants fit that description.

Clay Jones can be reached at [email protected]