Most post-Americans don't dig take-the-knee, and let us really look deeply at how that can effectively serve the cause of reviving our culture

Guy Benson at Townhall, in the course of citing the poll that proves this to be true, offers a couple of paragraphs of crucial insight. For a while, discussion and ranting about media bias and elite cultural institutions skewing the public's understanding of what is actually happening on the ground had become something of a trite and tiresome time-filler on talk radio and low-hanging content fruit for flush-faced pundits. But this cultural development really does point up the divide between what real people know and the convictions they harbor in the cores of their beings and the mad and poisonous fantasies that provide the foundations of the Left's worldview:

Today, we're watching something of a rerun, except the canyon between the press and the people is even wider here.  Setting aside the stipulations that of course peaceful protests are protected speech, that Trump erred in calling for firings, and that issues like police brutality are worthy of serious attention, most Americans do not support using the national anthem as an occasion for protest. We've been following the public opinion polls on these questions over the last few days, and the patterns are clear: Solid majorities oppose anthem kneeling (more than seven-in-ten call it "unpatriotic," according to a CBS survey), and sizable minorities are consuming lessof the NFL's product as a result of the brouhaha.   Some new numbers, via a polling firm called Remington Research Group, who conducted a scientific national poll of more than 1,600 Americans [tell the story; see link].

The over-politicization of normally-apolitical aspects of American life is a pet peeve of mine, and it seems I'm far from alone.  Some social justice types have criticized my take, asserting that only "privileged" people who are comfortably ensconced in the status quo feel this way.  That's demonstrably false (see above); I'd argue that the desire to prevent politics from poisoning unifying cultural institutions is a widely-shared, human impulse. I'd also wager that privileged liberalsare among the likeliest groups in the country to have the time and energy to foment constant outage over everything.  But back to the data: A lopsided majority also says that players should stand respectfully during the anthem (64/24), with half responding that the refusal of some (a small percentage, it should be noted, even this past week) to do so makes them less likely to watch games.

I guess a boneheaded, Trump-esque, Kurt Schlichter-esque, Laura Ingraham-esque way of interpreting this data would be to bellow, "You effete, pointy-headed elites and race-baiters and collectivists want to engage in an ever-escalating culture war with us based on your dismal numbers, bring it!"

And, quite honestly, I can only find one reason to take any issue with that stance.

It's this: Does it foreclose on a degree of clarity that we might want to have handy to serve us as this culture war gets even nastier (if that's possible)?

I realize the battle is pitched and there's no getting to kumbaya by direct route.

Therefore, my fellow actual conservatives, let us take stock of every possible arrow in our quiver. We want the most effective ones most handy.

You may have noticed a tapering off in the frequency of my posts in recent days. I could chalk it up to being busy, which is certainly the case, praise be to God for my blessings. But the real reason is that I hear a small voice admonishing me to proceed carefully.

What this blog is after is the pursuit of what is good, right and true. It will not get mired in wonkery, and by the same token it will not stoop to cheap tribalistic gratification.

So, yes, the numbers are with us. Heartening to see.

But we must also feel the charge to proceed responsibly.

Western civilization is at stake.