Protest is American. Pass it on.

Mike Ditka, by WEBN-TV, CC BY-ND 2.0

One-time Super Bowl winning coach of the Chicago Bears, Mike Ditka, had a few words for the football players protesting systemic injustice.

Speaking to Newsmax TV on Monday, the Pro Football Hall of Famer had a blunt message for those who kneel for the national anthem.

“If you can’t respect this country, get the hell out of it,” Ditka said on National Report.

“It’s not a complicated thing,” he said. “You play the game, you enjoy the game, if you don’t like the game, get out of it.” 

It's always struck me as odd and perplexing that a nation which was birthed in violent revolution, and went through a civil war over the unsettled issue of slavery stemming from that revolution, has such a large segment of its population which turns aghast at any sign of protest or criticism. What people like Ditka say is not very much different than the attitudes towards peaceful protest in the colonies before peaceful protest no longer became tenable in the face of the London government's intransigence. 

Did Ditka say the same about the "grass-roots" Tea Party protests which erupted in 2009 during President Barack Obama's first term? Did he tell those "peaceful protesters" to get the hell out of the country?

There's a strong strain in this country that any criticism of it is tantamount to treason. Or, I should say, the wrong kind of criticism is anathema. The same people who wore hats dangling with tea bags, or who carried assault rifles to state houses this summer, get very perturbed when people they view as vermin also exercise their right to peacefully assemble and call for a redress of grievances. Did Ditka call out the storming of Michigan's capital by armed thugs? I don't believe he did. That was a perfectly acceptable form of protest.

Of course, they're all hypocrites. Yes, those on our side mocked the Tea Partiers, because their grievances were so outlandish. And we mock the gun humpers, because their guns security blankets make them look laughable. But we never question their right to protest. 

Voting is the most powerful tool we have as citizens in a free country. It's how we ultimately hold politicians accountable. Term limits are enacted at regular intervals at the ballot box. 

However, voting is not our only power as citizens. A state which tells its citizens that voting is the only acceptable expression of their power is most likely a state which also constrains that expression of a people's power.

Make no mistake: those like Mike Ditka are perfectly fine with armed men and women marching down a street, threatening the populace, as a form of "protest". It's only when their adversaries engage in demonstrations that their hackles are raised. They see the First Amendment's protections as solely pertaining to themselves. Everyone else has to love America or leave it. And if you protest at injustice, that's prima facie proof that you don't love this country.

When peaceful evolution is made impossible, then violent revolution is a potential outcome. I, of course, and most Americans don't want to go through that and become Syria or the former Yugoslavia. But the stances of people like Mike Ditka, logically, would make that outcome more likely. 

Be careful of what you wish for. The gods are capricious, and may grant you your desires.