Staff Reports
On Sunday, February 8, 2026, the NFL staged another cultural stunt at the Super Bowl that left ordinary Americans scratching their heads. Before kickoff, R&B star Coco Jones performed “Lift Every Voice and Sing” — a song long described as the Black national anthem — and the halftime show featured Bad Bunny, a performer who sings primarily in Spanish and has drawn sharp criticism from the right. These choices were presented as diversity and spectacle, but millions of patriotic viewers saw them as a deliberate reshaping of a national moment that used to unite us.
Conservative commentators were predictably furious, and not without cause: this felt less like celebration and more like messaging. Benny Johnson and others blasted the NFL for what they called “woke” programming, with Johnson even saying the practice of splitting up anthem-style moments by race ought to be illegal and likening the halftime spectacle to a “border invasion.” Those remarks captured the raw outrage many Americans felt watching an event that used to honor our flag turn into a platform for progressive theater.
This isn’t about being small-minded or intolerant; it’s about holding public institutions accountable when they abandon traditions that once bound us together. The NFL and entertainment elites keep testing the limits, assuming viewers will applaud every reinvention of American tradition — then wonder why audiences tune out. Conservatives aren’t asking for censorship; we’re demanding that national rituals remain national, not segmented into identity-driven performances that threaten unity.
Make no mistake: the history of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” is real and important, and its origins are rooted in the struggle for liberty. But historic reverence should not be weaponized into new hierarchies of identity that implicitly tell some Americans their patriotism is conditional. If the NFL wants to honor the past, do it in ways that lift every voice without dividing the crowd into tribes during moments that are supposed to celebrate all Americans.
The broader conservative response has already produced alternatives and consequences — from callouts on social media to organized counterprogramming and boycotts of leagues that make politics their prime product. When institutions choose political theater over tradition, consumers have every right to take their money and attention elsewhere and support outlets that respect the flag. This marketplace pressure is how grassroots Americans push back when elites forget who pays their bills.
Patriots should be clear-eyed: this fight over the anthem is a battle for the soul of public life. It’s not merely about one song or one halftime show; it’s about whether America’s shared symbols remain sacred or become battlegrounds for ideological experiments. We should defend those symbols loudly, vote with our wallets, and hold leagues and networks to account until they restore respect for what unites us.
If the powers-that-be want to keep pushing culture wars into Sunday night’s biggest stage, they’ll find out the American people still have the power to push back. Hardworking citizens, veterans, and flag-loving families aren’t going to sit silently while national moments are repurposed into partisan performance art. Stand up, speak up, and demand that when the anthem plays, it means the same thing for every American — nothing less than unity, pride, and reverence for the country that made us free.
