On this edition of the Friday Left of Lansing Short, I tackle the right wing’s obsession and hatred for the United States women’s national soccer team.
Tweets like this were all too common from right wing media figures after Team USA’s loss to Sweden in the Round of 16:
So @charlescwcooke has said the unsayable about women’s soccer https://t.co/elmiSAmQMS
— Rich Lowry (@RichLowry) August 10, 2023
lmao this is so deranged pic.twitter.com/Sg5BO8YTrL
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 6, 2023
Don’t kill the messenger. This #USWNT is polarizing. Politics, causes, stances, & behavior have made this team unlikeable to a portion of America. This team has built its brand and has derived its power from being the best/winning. If that goes away they risk becoming irrelevant. https://t.co/J5yFxOuBet
— Alexi Lalas (@AlexiLalas) August 6, 2023
But I think Susan Demas of Michigan Advance nails it when it comes to the right wing’s complaints about USA women’s soccer:
Being a conservative these days is waking up and finding something new each day to decry and claim victimhood over. What a pointless, exhausting existence. https://t.co/gNfcs9wVTW
— Susan J. Demas 🏔 (@sjdemas) August 10, 2023
The right wing plays victim all of the time.
Progressive policies are popular, as we’re seeing in Michigan. Today’s right wing Republicans have no policies of their own which are popular. All they’ve got left are culture wars in which they are always the victim.
That’s why the right wing hates the U.S. women’s team. The players took stances, they took chances, and they celebrated individuality, which I thought was a hallmark of the American experiment.
Please, read Dave Zirin’s article: The U.S. women’s ‘cruel’ loss must also be a wake-up call.
Photo: “Megan Rapinoe (May 2019) (cropped)” by Jamie Smed is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
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