News: Michael Bradley, Geoff Cameron (and more?) comment on Trump's ban

He has the right to his opinion just like have an opinion, just like you and me.
He has the right to state his opinion, just like you and me.
The only thing that is different is that no one cares about my opinion and I don't get interviewed about my stance on Trump...or anyone else's policies. Nothing else for me to say.

 

The ignorance of this thread title, and original post, is astonishing.

GC, if healthy, is called in to camp no matter what his opinion might be.

If only Trump could ban you from this board.

 

Everyone wants to talk about the first amendment and liberal vs conservative when a controversial topic comes up. Yes, we all love our constitution. Yes it is his right and Bradley's right to hold an opinion and to make that opinion public.

Nobody wants to talk about what exactly Cameron supports, and what it means for the locker room and for our country.

 

I agree. The problem is that the everyday person is (wrongly) told by our culture to "always use power when you have it". Hence all these opinions as "news", goaded on by media looking for clicks/sensationalism.

The other problem is the power of fame/having-a-platform seduces an expert on one subject (e.g. soccer) into believing their opinions = expertise on completely unrelated subjects.

I hate this of any celebrity (athletes included, so both Bradley and Cameron in this case) whether I agree with their opinion or not.

There is only one exclusionary action I truly care about here, and that is the USMNT being excluded from Russia in 2018!! Focus ONLY on that, National team players!

 

That's because the country is roughly 50/50 split on whether it is good/bad. And if we truly value "diversity" - we need to agree to disagree and move on. So what if there are two opposing views in the locker room? Sounds representative of our great country.

Maybe these USMNT players can show the rest of us how we can have different opinions and still be ONE TEAM. That would be nice.

However - I feel that some just want to use this situation to virtue signal - paint the "other" side as bad/evil (fill in whatever derogatory name), and then use this as a bully pulpit to preach how everyone MUST conform to the "correct" side.

Nobody wants that crap on a soccer forum. Thus no point talking about it.

 

I do. Couple things right off the bat, Bradley opened his mouth first, which as I said I am fine with, but as he opened the can of worms, therby alienating X% of the locker room that disagreed with him, then any splitting of the locker room talk needs to be firmly laid at HIS feet, not Geoff's. For some reason your second sentence lays everything at Geoff's feet, please explain that.

Secondly, you seem to assume that someone supporting the ban, (but conspicuously not being opposed to it), is going to create problems in the locker room, I don't see how that is the case, the team has existed through many devisive issues, with players holding very strong opposing opinions about things and in the end they generally demonstrate that very democratic ability to lay those things aside and work together to get the job done. Odds are the locker room is divided on this issue, just like not only our country, but much of the world. For starters, dual nationals players, which I have seen some assume would be against the ban, may have similar viewpoints to Geoff, having witnessed what has transpired with Germany's refugee debacle.

As for the ban itself, lets talk about it. I don't support it, I think it is stupid and counter productive. Having said that, I don't think it is racist or evil and I can understand some of the motivation for it. I think a lot of what we are dealing with here is blowback from our meddling, bombing, assasinating and general dickishness in middle east and elsewhere. I also think a lot of what we are dealing with here is the ability for religion to unlock the worst possible behavior in human beings and to not acknowledge that problem, when dealing with an infexible dogma that calls for it's followers to commit the types of attrocities we are seeing, I am familiar with the Koran, Hadith and Sunnah, or call anyone who is concerned about that problem, racist or xenophobic, is more a hinderance than a help.

It is a complicated, messy, important problem that stirs up a lot of very heated opinions and I think we are best served by discussing it openly, listening to each other and looking for some sort of sythensis in solutions, rather than barricading ourselves in echo chambers and yelling at one another.

 

Yes, let's go burn something.

 

Your insight is to be admired; you've explained the phenomenon perfectly. This generation of sportspeople has not only been taught to weigh in in an effort to always be in the moment and relevant, but to also appear as precious as possible. It's mostly self-serving, of course. Even MLS had Dwayne DeRosario and Landon Donovan telling us that we had to be aware of our "human rights," as if the United States and Canada were Darfur. That was a sop, a way to appeal to the slightly countercultural. It wasn't done out of any real concern. I hate to be cynical, but I see a lot of exploitation of events and situations. I could go on, but I don't want to upset anyone.

 

Fair dues, to you. Really. I support the ban, but not happily; it's nothing to celebrate, it can't be a pretext for smallness, for insularity, for poor behavior. I also look forward to the day when the ban is lifted.

Anyway, I certainly respect your argument and the clarity and restraint with which you presented it..

You've made me smile.

 

That locker room may get interesting.

This is where Arena's experience in managing youn' uns comes into play.

 

He has as much right to express his opinion as Bradley and Gonzalez do, and he voiced his support of Trump a few times over the last 18 months or so (presumably why he was asked about this) so this is nothing new. At the end of the day no one is going to change their mind because of the opinions of an athlete, actor, etc. And as a fan I'm happy to root for guys whose political opinions I don't agree with, but I won't root for an organization that blackballs players or attempts to silence them over legitimate opinions (and like it or not this is an issue on which reasonable people can disagree, support of Trump's stance does not constitute racism or white nationalism, sorry but it simply doesn't).

FWIW I wonder if the guys from the 90s and 00s teams, who regularly had to play games on US soil in front of hostile crowds, might have a different perspective on Trump's immigration policies.

 

It shouldn't "get interesting". These guys are grownups. Plenty of people have coworkers, friends, family with whom they disagree with on political issues and manage to get along just fine. It's called being an adult.

 

That's the theory.

In practice, politics has torn apart NTs in the past.

Because it's not the same at all as with co-workers. You don't share a locker room with co-workers. You don't all fight together for the win. Each person is more or less autonomous in a job. Not the same in a sports team.

It's closer to the military.

 

Well, I guess it isn't going to be closed. IMO, I agree with the sentiments in this thread about athletes sticking to their sport. I vastly prefer private political conversations to public political rhetoric.

This.

My Dad's Minnesota relatives are all ardent Trump supporters. In stark contrast to myself and my Mom's NYC relatives. But everyone comes together and has a great time when 4th of July comes around and someone promises free food and booze!

I'm sure when the guys are out there, they're not looking at someone to pass to, then stopping and going "Wait, what was your opinion on the capital gains tax again?"...

 

Any word on Cameron's recovery?

 

I'm in the military, it's mostly but not 100% conservative (although I can only think of 1 person who I know voted for Clinton, about 8-10 who voted for Obama), I've deployed with guys who didn't share my views. You're a professional and you do your job.

 

Expected to start playing minutes by the mid of February, as per the coach.

http://sbisoccer.com/2017/01/stoke-city-manager-hughes-optimistic-on-cameron-recovery

"According to the Stoke Sentinel, Hughes is hopeful to have Cameron back in the fold by mid-February."

 

As noted, that's the ideal situation, and my experience online has taught me that everybody online is an "ideal" human being.

But, in practice, I can note France, Ghana, Egypt, Argentina, Serbia & Croatia as teams having had political acrimony in the locker room that affected their play on the field, as per their fans, in recent memory.

Of course, it could just be excuses too. I'm old enough to not believe what people claim on web forums.

 

Well this thread sure did take a turn to the right, I haven't seen right wing buzzwords spewed out this fast since the last time I looked at facebook.

 

Since when has politics become so heated that we have to worry about professionals who work together having a difference of opinion?

In my office, there are Republicans, Democrats, Independents, Libertarians, those that keep their mouth shut, you name it. But we all work together for the company and it doesn't get in the way.

I said it in the thread that got locked before, there are people in my personal life that I love that have the same view as Cameron, and people that I love that have opposite views of Cameron.

 

AND, the issue isn't black and white. Its not an either or situation.

You can be for more restrictive immigration laws or for less.

Just as an example...

I don't have a problem with people doing what they have to do to make a better life for themselves and their family. But I am in favor of doing more to stop illegal immigration. I am also not opposed to making things easier so people don't have to be here illegally. Individuals have their own nuanced opinions. If I told some people I am against illegal immigration and said nothing else, they would call me a racist nazi. I see that type of behavior all over facebook and the internet. I was told I support White Supremacy because I am against mobs of people running around beating up individuals outside the Milo events as well as the Trump rallies leading up to the election. If you have seen the videos, I think they are pretty disgusting and cowardly... But others glorify in them.

 

Debating politics is hopeless.

That's why I am in a soccer forum & not in a politics one.

 

Who would've thought you see better political discourse on USMNT section than bs actual politics section.