The left has a depressing message: racism, misogyny, greed, hate, communism, socialism, and the list goes on.  Americans have given these people a forum for decades, suffered through the angry speeches, the pompous lectures, the unending accusations and shaming.  And frankly, most people are sick of it.  They now go out of their way to avoid the liberal beatings. 

As a result, liberals have trouble getting their message out.  Most people don't attend leftist rallies, they turn off programs where liberals rattle off their grievances, and they generally try to avoid the toxic left.  But liberals never take no for an answer, they always find another way to impose their will, to force us to listen. 

Thus the bait and switch.  As usual, liberals don't have their own bait, so they have to co-opt ours.  They use events or activities we enjoy, places where we expect to have fun.  Then they parachute in and hammer us with their spiteful admonitions. 

• Want to curl up with a good book?  Hopefully you can look at J.K. Rowling's or Stephen King's books without associating their novels with the authors' venomous tirades. 

• Maybe you'd like to see a movie?  Good luck trying to immerse yourself in the plot when the lead character – Jennifer Lawrence, George  Clooney, Meryl Streep, or another activist star – just delivered a political screed.  Makes it hard to imagine that very real person as the fictional character in the movie. 

• Maybe you'll just watch the Emmy's or the Oscars.  But alas, more of the same: hate on display, a shameless pile-on to insult, demean, and slander the president and other conservatives.  Entire shows dedicated to tantrums and spite.

• Enjoy a latte at Starbucks?  Not without a shot of politics.  Starbucks's CEO promised to hire 10,000 refugees to refute the president's travel ban, publicly supported redefining marriage, declared Starbucks's U.S. stores gun-free zones, and launched the "Race Together" campaign in response to Ferguson's fake news.  Tough to get away from political firestorms even for a cup of java.  

• Do you like to shop at Target?  Be prepared to let your six-year-old daughter share a bathroom with any perv who claims to be confused about his gender.  Even if parents try to ignore this insanity, the fact that this open-door policy also pertains to dressing rooms seals the deal. 

In each of these cases, leftists use the bait, something we like to do, to lure us into their trap.  Then the switch: instead of fun or relaxation, we're bombarded with vicious, vile political rhetoric.

And now they've tainted football, the last bastion of Americana. 

The football player who started this NFL cluster, Colin Kaepernick, is blatantly anti-American.  He wore socks depicting pigs in police hats, sat out the National Anthem, and defended Cuban dictator Fidel Castro to a South Florida reporter. 

Colin didn't deny that his protest was against the flag.  He flat-out admitted it. 

For the fans, it's like being invited to a Super Bowl party where the host announces that he hates America, thinks it's a country of white zealots, dirty cops, and greedy oligarchs.  And those rotten NFL players are all selfish creeps, collecting their millions while the minimum wage stays stagnant.

You're stunned.  What does any of that have to do with the party?  But you're trapped.  If you stay, the moment's past, the fun's gone out of the room, the mood now somber.  But if you get up and leave, your friends will think you're judgmental, that you don't allow freedom of speech. 

This is an example of how the left springs their political ambush time and again.  They intentionally suck the joy out of every fun or pleasurable thing in America.  It's their goal. 

Why?  Maybe to spread the misery.  Liberals are a wretched group – angry, bitter human beings.  Watch them.  They don't smile or laugh, and they seem hell-bent on making sure no one else does, either. 

Or maybe they have other motives – to turn American against American, the people versus the NFL.  They do love to divide us, to pit us against one another. 

But what can we do? 

Turn them off.  Pass up activist authors for those who just write.  Find movies that aren't tainted with Hollywood's obsessive hate for our president.  Shop in stores that don't force shared bathrooms or dressing rooms.  And yes, a little known fact is that Starbucks isn't the only game in town.  In fact, I found a local coffee shop where the ambience is better, and so is the coffee. 

I'm still hopeful that the NFL can correct course but not sure it will ever be the same.  Meanwhile, turn to college ball or local games.  Whatever you do, don't get wrapped up in the angry back-and-forth.  Not worth it.

And most important, don't give these abusers a bigger platform.  The media love to cover the social wars, 24/7, to foment hate, feature angry proxies who lecture us on our racist nature.  Turn them off, you won't miss a thing.  These shows just rehash the latest racial controversy or pimp fake news anyway.  No big loss. 

I'm not saying to boycott.  Organized protests are losing effectiveness – too many, too predictable.  But then, I'm sure the liberals factored that in when they decided to piggyback their misery onto our daily activities and recreation. 

But ironically, the individual customers who reject these social tyrants are making a bigger impact than any boycott.  Target has lost billions since its bathroom ultimatum; Hollywood's going broke with their pompous activist stars; Oscars and Emmys ratings hit new lows; and the NFL's suffering low ratings, dwindling ticket and merchandise sales, and a disappearing fan base. 

Yet my call to arms isn't to punish the liberals for their intrusion; it's to escape them.  As I said, they can't get people to willingly listen to their chronic complaining.  Americans don't want all politics all the time.  They can be involved in their government, work for their cause without sacrificing every enjoyable part of their lives to the altar of activism. 

And most want to get back to fun – backyard BBQs, the beach, and movies that take them away.  They want a holiday season free of politics, Thanksgiving without the latest political football, Christmas without a politically correct cloud.  Most just want to enjoy their lives, to be happy.

If we don't let liberals crash the party, they can't ruin it, can't spoil the fun.  It'll take them a while to understand that.  They're still sorting out the election after all, but eventually, they'll have to confront their own irrelevance. 

Will this silence them?  No, but to paraphrase philosopher George Berkley's "if a tree falls in the forest" question: if a liberal whines and no one is around to hear them, do they make a sound?