^^It disturbs me deeply. Both the forced patriotism that this issue is based on and the President using his bully pulpit to press on something like this. The fact that its a felony is not unimportant to me, but the way Trump has used this issue to divide people bothers me more.

Trump's stance on this is purely political and cynical. His comments about how kneeling players should be deported are both un-American and completely un-Constitutional. Anyone who knows anything about him knows it's all bullshit to him anyway, and that he's just using it as a tool. This is red meat to his supporters though. The fact that so many of those supporters are ok with it is stunning, but not at all surprising. This is turning into a religion or a cult where 'dear leader' can do no wrong. The 'problem' is with the outsiders. It's dangerous.

On the crime aspect of it I would say that rule of law is all we have protecting us, and if people just shrug that off because their side 'won' that protection grows tenuous. Probably seems ok when your team is in power, will seem less so when they aren't. I keep thinking of the lines Robert Bolt wrote in A Man For All Seasons about the devil and the law.