One of the observations that has been made (in both good and bad faith) about 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s decision to protest what he sees as a racially biased criminal justice system by sitting while “The Star-Spangled Banner” is played is that his action could be perceived as an insult toward the military. Kaepernick himself, however, says that his protest has nothing to do with the armed services, and in the past few days he’s also started to attract support on the issue from a perhaps unexpected quarter: Veterans and active service members posting on social media using the hashtag #VeteransForKaepernick.
Some examples:
You can see many more here.
For what it’s worth, polls generally find that pluralities of active service members describe themselves as “conservative”—though it’s also worth noting that criminal justice reform is one of the few causes in American politics that has significant support among both conservatives and liberals (not to mention libertarians).
