What exactly are those NFL players protesting? Racism? Cops? The flag? The national anthem? Some ill-defined perception of systematic injustice? America itself? After Colin Kaepernick started the whole fiasco last football preseason when he sat pouting on the bench, it seems at that moment even he had no clear idea what he was protesting, or even that he was protesting at all. Was Kaepernick motivated by some altruistic concern over the lack of justice, or was he frustrated by his own playing situation? Due to poor play, he had lost the starting quarterback job the season prior, a precipitous fall after having led the San Francisco 49ers to Super Bowl XLVIII. But his sitting on the bench during the national anthem happened to be caught on camera and questions were quickly raised. Only then came Kaepernick’s explanation that his refusal to stand for the anthem was out of protest against police brutality and racial injustice, among other things. Thus a Leftmedia “hero” was born to rally folks to the anti-America social “justice” cause.

An example that exposes the lack of a cohesive message or understanding among the players themselves comes from former NFL wide receiver Donté Stallworth. The now CNN reporter explained the message confusion: “[Players are] telling me it’s also about the gender pay gap, it’s also about housing discrimination — they have so many things that they are interested in and advocating for.” If the supposed pay gap is an issue, it’s ironic that no NFL cheerleaders have seen fit to join the players in protesting the anthem.

The trouble is that as the kneeling fad spread throughout the NFL, most fans and much of the country were rightly offended by this disrespectful display. Rather than any kind of specific and relatable social problem, it shouldn’t have been surprising that protesting the flag and anthem, no matter what the cause, was perceived as hating America.

When Donald Trump, with his finger on the pulse of much of Middle America, publicly blasted players who were protesting the flag, NFL ratings, which were already down, took a nosedive. The NFL commissioner responded by issuing a memo pressing players to stand.

But Hillary Clinton, evidently still striving for relevancy, recently weighed in on the kneeling protests. On Monday, while at a literature festival in London, Hillary said that people should resist “what are very clear dog-whistles” by Trump. She continued, “That’s what black athletes kneeling was all about. That’s not against our anthem or our flag.” She even opined, “Actually, kneeling is a reverent position. It was to demonstrate in a peaceful way against racism and injustice in our criminal system.”

Trump responded, “Well, that’s why she lost the election. I mean, honestly, it’s that thinking — that is the reason she lost the election. When you go down and take a knee … for our great national anthem, you’re disrespecting our flag and you’re disrespecting our country. … I think that her statement in itself is very disrespectful to our country.”

And that is exactly the point that Clinton, Democrats and the Left don’t seem to understand. The political brand they are attempting to sell to Americans is one that is in essence anti-American. Telling Americans that they are the problem, that their freedoms amount to social “injustice” and need to be increasingly limited, that to be patriotic and proud of one’s country is to be bigoted and racist — that message just doesn’t ring true for much of America. It is not a sin to be an American.