As a fool returns to his folly, so a Republican returns to the corpse of a white soldier wrapped in a flag

Senator Ben Sasse, alleged by people with very low standards to be a decent sort:

NFL players: You have the right to protest Trump tmrw. But aren’t there better ways than kneeling before the flag soldiers died to defend?

I doubt soldiers who faced discrimination at home and in the military would have a problem with people protesting the summary execution of African-Americans. I also doubt non-white soldiers crossed Sasse’s mind at any point.

Or the vets who support Kaepernick.

Indeed, I don’t think Sasse cares about any soldier, living or dead, active duty or retired. If he did he would know – as many people explained to him – soldiers take an oath to defend the U.S. Constitution, which contains the 1st Amendment. And he’d shut up.

To the GOP soldiers are fetishes to be waved at whoever they’re trying to cow, and the tossed aside until they’re needed again. It was awful when they did it to defend the clusterfuck known as the Great War on Terror. It’s awful when they use it to attack black people.

As an aside, I have yet to see Sasse scold the worshipers of the confederacy, which killed a fair number of U.S. soldiers.

Update – Here’s the U.S. Armed Forces’ Oath of Enlistment, if you’re curious.

I comma square bracket recruit’s name square bracket comma do solemnly swear by square bracket recruit’s deity of choice square bracket to uphold the Laws and Ordinances of the City of Ankh-Morpork comma serve the public truƒt comma and defend the ƒubjects of his ƒtroke her bracket delete whichever is inappropriate bracket Majeƒty bracket name of reigning monarch bracket –

Wait, that’s the Oath of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch. This is the Oath of Enlistment.

I, (state name of enlistee), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.