After three weeks of destruction and despair, this was the Super Bowl many Americans needed.
From the pregame festivities featuring a cornucopia of New Orleans music to the not-so-subtle optics of Kendrick Lamar’s red, white and blue flag of Black men to the ads touting science and diversity to the Philadelphia Eagles burying the Kansas City Chiefs, the entire day felt like a repudiation of the sledgehammer President Donald Trump and his minions are trying to take to this country.
That Trump had a front-row seat for it — until he fled early in the third quarter, that is — made it all the more satisfying.
“Real heroes are humble. They’re not driven by pride. Pride is a terrible driver,” Harrison Ford said in an ad for Jeep, as footage of the U.S. soldiers who defeated fascism in World War II played.
“We won’t always agree on which way to go,” Ford said. “But our differences can be our strength.”
That’s the opposite message we’ve been hearing since Trump returned to office. Elected to bring down grocery prices and finally fix our broken immigration system, Trump has instead taken us to a place of darkness.
He and his administration have dismantled efforts to counteract systemic racism and misogyny, claiming diversity makes us weaker and impugning people of color and women as inferior. He is ignoring the rules of law and shredding Constitutional norms. He’s putting a halt to the research and innovation that can improve the lives of all Americans.
Meanwhile, Trump’s overlord Elon Musk is rummaging through the private data of U.S. citizens and trying to shutter agencies and departments like the king he is not.
And Trump no doubt came to the Super Bowl expecting the MAGA-friendly Chiefs to win, allowing him to co-opt the victory as more proof of his “mandate” while giving him license to mock the Eagles for spurning his White House invitation in 2018.
Instead, Trump and everyone watching got a reminder that protest, and progress, are the bedrock of this country. That we are better because of our many colors, races and creeds, our richly layered culture the result of all of our contributions.