Megan Rapinoe is so enamored of her own athletic prowess that she has somehow internalized the notion that we care what she thinks about the president, the anthem, the flag, and the country.  As Silvio Canto wrote here on Wednesday, she seems to think her superior skill at soccer gives her the right to insult all the Americans with political views that differ from hers.

Rapinoe demonstrated an embarrassing lack of class that contaminates her entire team.  She is a woman who never learned that a bit of grace is an infectious thing in a good way.  This, of course, makes her a hero to the hate-America Left that populates CNN and MSNBC 24/7.  Her disdain for the country to them means she is presidential material!  Just ask Rachel Maddow.

The Left is now officially insane.  This arrogant, disagreeable woman, Rapinoe, because she plays soccer well, thinks she has the right to trash everything and everyone she loathes.  As Rush suggested, she is likely angling for a hefty contract with Nike or some other sports mega-company that will throw millions of dollars at her to spew her venom.  It worked for failed NFL jerk Colin Kaepernick, and Rapinoe checks off an additional box on the identity politics scale as a gay woman. 

New York gave the women's soccer team a tickertape parade and a platform.

Rapinoe addresses the victory parade crowd.
(Fox Soccer screen grab via YouTube.)

This victory is not equal to V.E. Day or akin to our astronauts' achievements in space.  Not even close.  MSNBC says Rapinoe is "filling the leadership void," that her place in the global spotlight" provides her an opportunity for a positive message."  For heaven's sake, one would think she just managed to bring about world peace.  Watching her team and its fans in Lyon chant "F--- Trump" on camera was obnoxious, a betrayal.  These were Americans on foreign soil.

There is a must-read column in Quillette, "In Defense of Decency" by Robert McLeod.  It should be clear to everyone by now that the Left regards civility as a defect.  From McLeod's piece, "[t]his mindset seems to be informed by a fear that engaging the enemy with decency betrays weakness or disloyalty to the cause."  This explains the violent incivility of Antifa, Black Lives Matter, Occupy Wall Street, et al.  It's all part of the left's Alinskyite/Cloward-Piven plan.  Overwhelm the system, create chaos, and destroy it all so it can be rebuilt in their totalitarian vision of utopia.

The women of the team and their fans have transformed their World Cup victory into a political rant; they demand equal pay to the athletes of the men's U.S. soccer team.  They are most likely overpaid already.  The men's tournaments bring in billions of dollars, the women's only millions.  As Canto reminds, there are not enough good women's teams in the world to make for great games.  Even Seneca knew that "greed's worst point is ingratitude."

Like most of the Left these days, their principal character trait is a profound lack of gratitude.  Think Ilhan Omar, the Somali-born congresswoman, rescued by the U.S. only to be maligned every time she opens her mouth to speak.  The women of the US soccer team are privileged.  They have worked hard, but they are privileged, rewarded for their effort.

Why are Rapinoe and her like-minded teammates (one hopes, not all of them) so angry and bitter?  Because they have been taught to be angry and bitter.

Anger and bitterness are the defining characteristics of the American Left.  One can only feel sorry for these people.  They are unable to enjoy the phenomenal advantage of being American or the successes of the Trump presidency: the lowest unemployment rate ever, soaring economy and stock market, energy independence, rising wage rates, etc.  It's all good, but they are angrier than ever.

Rapinoe is just the latest example of anti-American vitriol among those too ignorant to be grateful for what this country has afforded them.  The Left sees civility as weakness, but it is "ingratitude that is always a kind of weakness.  I have never known men of ability to be ungrateful" (Goethe).