Below is my column in The Hill on the growing “Let’s Go, Brandon” movement, which is a unique response to what many people view as a bias media. It is the modern equivalent of the adoption of “Yankee Doodle Dandy” by colonists in using what was a contemptuous expression as a rallying cry of defiance.
Here is the column:
Roughly 250 years ago, a political insult by British troops during the American Revolution was converted into a rallying cry by the colonials. “Yankee Doodle Dandy” was intended to mock the Continental Army as unsophisticated dandies, but the maligned militiamen turned it around to mock the British after defeats like Yorktown. The song is a lasting example of how symbols of contempt can become symbols of defiance.
In a curious way, “Let’s Go Brandon!” has become a similarly unintended political battle cry. It derives from an Oct. 2 interview with race-car driver Brandon Brown after he won his first NASCAR Xfinity Series race. During the interview, NBC reporter Kelli Stavast’s questions were drowned out by loud-and-clear chants of “F*** Joe Biden.” Stavast quickly and inexplicably declared, “You can hear the chants from the crowd, ‘Let’s go, Brandon!’”
Stavast’s denial or misinterpretation of the obvious instantly became a symbol of what many Americans perceive as media bias in favor of the Biden administration. Indeed, some in the media immediately praised Stavast for her “smooth save” and being a “quick-thinking reporter.” But the episode was reminiscent of a reporter standing in front of burning buildings during last year’s riots and calling them peaceful protests. Indeed, even the original profane chant seemed directed as much at the media as Biden — creating an undeniable backdrop to news coverage.
The three-word slogan is now emblazoned across tee-shirts, coffee mugs and even billboards. An anti-Biden “Let’s go, Brandon!” hip-hop song hit the top of the charts on iTunes; soon, there were four such songs with the same refrain. The top song was banned on sites like YouTube and Instagram as spreading “harmful false information.” Yet the effort to bar people from listening to the song only fueled the interest and the movement.
The media’s reaction has fulfilled the underlying narrative, too, with commentators growing increasing shrill in denouncing its use. NPR denounced the chant as “vulgar,” while writers at the Washington Post and other newspapers condemned it as offensive; CNN’s John Avalon called it “not patriotic,” while CNN political analyst Joe Lockhart compared it to coded rhetoric from Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan and ISIS.
The more the media has cried foul, however, the more people have picked up the chant.
Then a Southwest Airlines pilot reportedly used the expression at the end of a signoff with passengers on a flight from Houston to Albuquerque. Associated Press reporter Colleen Long apparently was so irate that she demanded access to the cockpit and was almost expelled from the flight. She admits that “I was asking them to open locked cock pit and probably sounded insane!” Washington Post editor Cathleen Decker described the use of the slogan as a “vulgarity stand-in from @SouthwestAir cockpit.” Liberals called for an investigation and the firing of the pilot. CNN analyst Asha Rangappa even compared the pilot to an ISIS sympathizer: “As an experiment, I’d love for an @SouthwestAir pilot to say ‘Long live ISIS.’”
But what if the pilot had simply knelt in protest of the Biden administration as passengers boarded or deplaned?
Well, many of these same commentators have supported the NFL’s kneelers and insisted that any effort to prevent their protest was racist or a denial of free speech.
As I wrote previously, employees do not have a right to protest on the job, whether in Starbucks or in sports stadiums. Nevertheless, when then-President Trump condemned the NFL kneelers as unpatriotic, some Democrats in Congress called for his impeachment. When the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg also criticized the kneelers, journalist Katie Couric edited out most of her comments.
The fact is that neither the Southwest pilot nor Colin Kaepernick have a legal right to protest at work. I also believe it is inappropriate for a pilot to use his position — and the captive audience on his plane — to proselytize or politic.
“Let’s go, Brandon!” is as much a criticism of the media as it is of President Biden, however. Many in the media have embraced advocacy journalism and rejected objectivity in reporting; in their view, readers and viewers are now to be educated rather than merely informed. Many reporters reject “both-sidesism,” the need to offer a balanced account of the news. Thus, stories like the Hunter Biden laptop scandal were killed before the 2020 presidential election by Twitter and most media companies. After Biden was elected, some media belatedly confirmed the authenticity of the laptop.
We live in an age of unprecedented censorship by private companies. The media has shown that you can have an effective state media without direct regulation by the state — because today’s media adheres to common narratives out of ideological or economic interests, without the threat of state coercion.
The Biden administration and the National Science Foundation are funding research on a new tool designed to give media an even more immediate response to “misinformation.” The $750,000 grant to Temple University tracks news reports as part of a “Trust & Authenticity in Communication Systems” initiative. But the effort to “rebuild the Nation’s news trust” is premised on flagging content that might result in “negative unintended outcomes” like “the triggering of uncivil, polarizing discourse, audience misinterpretation, the production of misinformation, and the perpetuation of false narratives.” Such algorithms promise even greater consistency in messaging and framing of the news.
In other words, “Brandon” is going to get even more popular, because such efforts are not really working.
Censorship and media bias have never really changed minds or shaped lasting public opinion. You cannot get the public to hear “F*** Joe Biden!” but think “Let’s go, Brandon!” Biden’s popularity has tanked despite an openly protective and enabling media, with 71 percent of the public believing the country is going in the wrong direction, according to one poll. The reason is that the media is now singing from the same choir book, while most Americans have tuned it out.
That brings us back to “Yankee Doodle Dandy” and the perils of mockery. Many Americans interpreted the false race-day account as an act of open contempt for viewers who were expected to simply believe what they were told was happening, despite seeing and hearing something else. Instead, they have now used that phrase as a rallying cry for defiance. It’s their way of telling both the president and the media to “mind the music and the step” because they are marching to a different tune.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. You can find his updates on Twitter @JonathanTurley.
Let’s go Brandon.
https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirts/lets-go-brandon
This should be in every college student’s wardrobe.
Thank you for the link, Allan……I especially like the slogan “Think while it’s still legal”!!!
Wait.
If Americans enjoy the freedom of speech, Americans must also enjoy the freedom of thought. Am I right?
And if Americans enjoy the freedom of religion, Americans must also enjoy the freedom of belief, opinion and discrimination. Am I right?
And if Americans enjoy the freedom of assembly, Americans must also enjoy the freedom of segregation. Am I right?
There’s a whole lotta freedomin’ goin’ on out thea!!!
__________________________________________
9th Amendment
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Shut up! You talk too fast
You’ve got to get the morning past.
Don’t express your views
Kneel down at the pew.
Pray to Dog your soul to take
Fart in class to celebrate
Watch out for the monkeys!
Yankee Doodle was a slur that British soldiers used during the French-Indian War, a quarter-century before the Revolution. It was also sung by the British at the beginning of the Revolution, but really, the British Army and Navy did much worse things to us during the Revolutionary war than call us silly names.
“If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world.”
– King George III of England When Told Washington Would Resign
I love it! The smug elites have essentially told us, “Let them eat cake.”
There is so much material for comedians! I can only imagine what the original SNL writers would have done with the current news and trends. Who will have the courage to do it in today’s environment?
There are four lights!!!!!!!!!
The AP reporter who tried to enter the cockpit of the Southwest plane admitted she probably sounded insane.
Yup! These days they all do. All of the time.
Hence: Let’s Go Brandon!
It is an odd thing that former Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe (2014-2018), outspent in millions of dollars a nobody like Glenn Youngkin. He recruited big name Democrats Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Teachers Union President Randi Weingarten and Stacey Abrams. Yet he lost to the parents of school children in Virginia who were classified as terrorists by the US Attorney General.
Clearly Joe Biden is not for the American people.
The Republican Party is the party FOR parents, FOR freedom, FOR bodily autonomy, and….
FOR the Working People (ie Not the party of the rich, the elites who are now represented by the Democrat Party who, by the way, are immune from the painful effects of outrageous Democrat policies.)
When nonsense is spouted it becomes a rallying cry of defiance. During the Vietnam war fighter pilots were called Yankee Air Pirates. All of us who fought proudly wear pirate badges on our combat flight suits. Every squadron and every wing proudly flew pirate flags below old Glory.
“Roughly 250 years ago, a political insult by British troops during the American Revolution was converted into a rallying cry by the colonials. “Yankee Doodle Dandy” was intended to mock the Continental Army as unsophisticated dandies, but the maligned militiamen turned it around to mock the British after defeats like Yorktown. The song is a lasting example of how symbols of contempt can become symbols of defiance.”
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Man, I love a popular uprising! We’re all revolutionaries, you know … well, most know.
“DO YOUR DUTY”
“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
– Declaration of Independence, 1776
In the 1800s, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were called “Mormons” by their detractors because of a belief in The Book of Mormon as another witness, with The Holy Bible, of Jesus Christ. Rather than rail against the intended insult, they embraced the intended epithet, because they loved the book’s witness of Christ. Yet, they are believers and disciples of Jesus Christ, despite the name intended to belittle them and their message.
I found the article at this Link to be interesting.
One quote stood out to me as I have followed the many posts about the assault on “free speech” particularly at Colleges and Universities.
That quote is: “With this historical understanding of free speech, our first analysis of what might constitute a violation of the clause will always be whether government has assumed through law the common law power of subjectively defining what shall be a sedition against government or its members (shielding itself from public examination/criticism). If the answer is no then there is no infringement under the clause.
Additionally, it is rather absurd to argue a school can violate someone’s freedom of speech when no school has any municipal police authority to subjectively declare speech or publication seditious and criminally punish such.
Finally, opposition to speech or press restrictions for purpose of public decency or order is a political question and not a judicial one. By making it a judicial question serves only to uproot the great liberty of the people to govern themselves under their own chosen laws and sense of norms.”
The notion that any school cannot violate someone’s freedom of speech because it does not have municipal police authority seems to ignore reality.
A school administration in response to objection to a particular speaker or speakers with a distinct view can use police power to violate one’s freedom of speech by means of a criminal statute known as “Trespassing”.
Suspending, firing, dismissing….terminating employment or access to classes….all set the stage for an individual to be criminally prosecuted should they return or attempt to enter upon the grounds of the school….all because of what someone has to say about any topic.
http://www.federalistblog.us/2008/10/freedom_of_speech_and_of_the_press/
And, the Southwest “incident” is likely not to have happened. The “tape” publicizing it was from a few weeks prior to the reported incident and has been cut to “Let’s Go Br…..” Odd, isn’t it, that it timed with the ascent of the Atlanta Braves (aka the Karmas for MLB commish)……..
The audiotape, which as you note was suspiciously clipped after the “Br”, was recorded on October *12*.
Yet that tape is “evidence” for what allegedly happened on October *29*.
When you engage in time-travel “journalism,” don’t be surprised that the public no longer trusts you.
We need to outlaw the word “moron”.
It fits so many humans now.
Those who can: do.
Those who can’t: preach
Those who can’t preach: kill teachers.
Ron Reagan was a great President.
Just what we need: Morons!
Let’s Go Brandon!
Stand loud and proud with the LGBFJB community!
The fact that people are getting mad at, and censoring, a euphemism is unbelievable. It’s like censoring the word “darn” or “gosh.” Where does it end? The answer: never. Thanks Professor for a “dandy” pro-freedom column!
Personally I think it’s hilarious. The buffoonish, bootlicking NBC reporter thought she was shutting down the pro-Trumpers.
Little did she know she was handing them a nuclear weapon.
Sorta like “At this point, what DIFFERENCE does it make??”
I enjoy reading your blog. My guess is we disagree on many things, but I believe we could sit down and have a meaningful and respectful chat. This seems a rare event in today’s culture. Keep it up.
Vapid three-word zingers and slogans on cheap t-shirts: Orange Moron knows his base pretty well.
The incompetent imbecile who you voted for is methodically destroying the country, while you obsess over the guy who left office a year ago.
The butthurt in you is strong…
The same press that decries “LGB” called Deniro’s “”F—Trump” speech eloquent and brave.
They lie to us and they get upset when we call them on it.
Well, at least Deniro was more direct and honest than hiding behind a euphemism.
🤣 Brilliant! The media created the euphemism and the Left are butt-hurt we’re running with it.
olly……….😊👍
Svelaz
“Direct and honest”
Maybe, but also crass, vulgar, and unimaginative.
And it was greeted with acclaim by the Left.
Told us a lot about both Deniro and the Left.
The original version (not Brandon) started at college games. It was refreshing to hear college students send a message to the left. The left has made every attempt to silence counter views on campus, so turnabout is fair play Brandon. Let those who are offended go to their designated “safe” zones on campus or work.
No, Margot, “college students” don’t support Trump. The dopes you heard chanting this are the ones who just adore college football, particularly dumbass southerners who just live for their bottle blondie daughters to be cheerleaders and their dipstick sons to play football, because that’s all that life’s about–right? And, if there was a “Left” controlling college campuses, college students are part of it because they are intelligent and see Trump for the bloated loser, liar, racist, misogynistic xenophobic narcissist that he is. And, there’s no “Left” that is attempting to censor alt/right messages on campus, either. The crap put out by the Trumpsters and Republicans are repulsive to bright young college students.
How do you go from the most votes ever, 81 million, to an approval rate of 30% in ten months?
RogOsb-easy, mail in ballots🤪
The answer is as old as the basic sales process: over-promise and under-deliver. That’s actually too kind.
In the 80’s, I was in the Navy stationed at a command that specialized in operational deception. The basic idea was if you can convince the enemy you’re doing something else, then what you actually have planned has a greater chance of success.
Olly, who was that guy in WWII who captured thousands of Nazis because he convinced them the Royal Air Force was at his back, and he was simply the negotiator of their surrender, when the RAF hadn’t the foggiest idea where he was?
I don’t know Karen. I’d be interested in reading the story.
Karen…….ask Young that question…..he will probably know. History is his forte’.
Biden lied and died as soon as the ink dried on the faux ballots.
Personally not a fan of this stuff, but LGB is not as bad, or as vulgar, as what many on the left were saying about the last Prez.
Of course, those were the elites. We should mind our manners and try not to annoy our betters
Interesting is it not?
Actor Robert De Niro can say, “F-Trump!” and get a standing ovation, but the SW pilot is compared to a ISIS terrorist.
The hypocrisy of MSM never fails to amaze me.
The fact they either dont see, or choose to ignore their hypocrisy is truly amazing.
Trump was assassinated in effigy by Kathy Griffin. Killed in a Snoop Dog video. Killed as Casesar in a play. Madonna fantasized about blowing up the White House. Johnny Depp (wrongfully accused by Amber Heard) said it’s been a long time since an actor assassinated a president. Ashley Judd was shaking with rage in her “nasty woman” speech. Chelsea Handler urged the military to overthrow Trump and “take him out.” Biden said he’d like to take Trump being the bleachers and beat him up.
And Democrats were going to return us to civility?
Let’s go Brandon!