Caffeinated Politics

The primitive side of politics that Charlie Kirk participated with in life continues after his death. News this week of counterprogramming during the Super Bowl half-time show is yet another sign of the dread and fear that a segment of the white population has with the changing racial demographics in our population. Add in disdain for diversity and we are in the midst of another needless and painful culture war of their creation.

Turning Point USA, the grassroots conservative political action network founded by the late activist Kirk, is planning an “All American Halftime Show” with the goal of competing with the official show featuring Bad Bunny and sponsored by Apple Music. A survey on their site asks respondents to select from a number of genres they’d like to hear during the show, including country, hip-hop, rock or “anything in English.” Talk about a parade of ugliness on full display.

In a nation built on contradiction (Thomas Jefferson) and compromise (Henry Clay), the idea of a counterprogramming stunt to the official Super Bowl performance is not just petty but also highly-revealing about the core nature of Turning Point USA. They are going out of their way to showcase what is profoundly un-American.

Let’s be honest about what is happening. Music is the last issue that this conservative operation is thinking about. What is at play is nothing short of a most obvious attempt at cultural gatekeeping. These people are now trying to set the narrative to redefine patriotism and do it through the ugly process of exclusion. The racist “English-only” lingo is a full-faced rebuke of Bad Bunny, the Puerto Rican superstar chosen to headline the NFL’s halftime show next year. I strongly suspect the performer fully understands what many in this nation also grasp. This racial insult isn’t aimed so much at him as it is the American experiment itself. That is why I write this column today.

The United States has never been a monolingual nation. Full stop. From the founding era, German, Dutch, French, Spanish, and dozens of Indigenous languages coexisted with English. The Continental Congress printed documents in German. Louisiana’s legal code was bilingual. New York City’s newspapers were multilingual. As of 2021, over 22% of the U.S. population aged 5 and older speaks a language other than English at home, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. This number has tripled since 1980.  To suggest that English is the sole language of patriotism is not just historically illiterate it is a profoundly mean-spirited attack on our pluralist roots.

I get it that the Charlie Kirk base is angry and hurt about his death from gun violence. I think the assassination was abhorrent and vile in every sense of those words. But what Turning Point USA’ is doing is nothing more than turning his death into a national cultural tantrum. The attempt to draw a line between “real” Americans and everyone else is not only a sad display of partisan absurdity but also their admitting to not having understood our national story as a people.

Recall the shame of what our nation endured during the ludicrous Red Scare. Or the bizarre ‘logic’ that justified Japanese internment. Or the ones who made ugly scenes to prevent movement with civil rights in our land. To now think that Kirks’ followers can dress up their preposterous politics of division in red, white, and blue and expect it to be swallowed means they do not understand the foundations of this nation.

I have pressed over the 19 years of blogging that there are not enough moments in our nation when we have a collective national experience. In this highly fractured and split nation with its harsh political climate, the Super Bowl is one of the few remaining communal rituals in American life. And that is why it is deeply troubling that Turning Point USA has chosen to weaponize it.

From Ellis Island to the Great Migration, from the Chinese railroad workers to the DREAMERS, America’s story is one of diversity. Why is that so hard for some conservatives to grasp? Our music, our food, our language, our faiths, they are patchworks stitched together by generations of immigrants and outsiders. To reject this fact is to reject America itself.

I stood on the Wisconsin statehouse steps and listened to Jesse Jackson when he sought the 1988 primary win in the April election. He spoke of our nation as a beautiful quilt made up of diverse colors and shapes and backgrounds. He spoke of our kaleidoscopic culture. I recall looking around and noticing that people were crying as tears were being wiped as the meaning of his theme was hitting home. My eyes were wet, too.

I do not take this topic lightly as it is one that permeates our entire national story. It is unacceptable to pretend that exclusion is patriotism. Whatever is happening to this land, make no mistake that this alternate halftime show idea is yet another ugly symptom of the sickness in our land that needs a remedy.