A wave of frustration has swept through certain circles on the American left, as they grapple with the resolution of a glaring controversy at the World Cup.
In last week’s Round of 32 clash, the US national team was stunned when their star forward, Folarin Balogun, received a red card after an opponent fell during an aggressive play from behind for possession of the ball.
This incident initially threatened to bench Balogun for the crucial knockout match against Belgium. However, in a turn of events on Sunday, FIFA postponed the enforcement of the striker’s suspension.
The ensuing discontent from the Belgian side appeared pitiable, and the backlash from some disillusioned Americans even more so.
Former Obama staffer, Tommy Vietor, expressed delight over Balogun’s return to play, but also voiced concerns that his reinstatement might fuel perceptions of tournament rigging across the globe.
Husband from hell and fifth-place primary finisher George Conway called the episode “revolting” and that it might “end up tarnishing the team.”
Richard Hanania deemed Bolgun’s reinstatement “a depressing sign of how far we’ve fallen,” comparing the Stars and Stripes to “a backwards, third world country.”
Trump’s ‘ask’
Meanwhile, actual third-worldists like Mehdi Hasan sided with Hanania, calling on Balogun to “refuse to play” in protest of the “unfair” development.
Some of the teeth-gnashing can be chalked up to a particularly nasty strain of Trump Derangement Syndrome.
By all reports, Trump called FIFA president Gianni Infantino to ask that the body give the matter a second look.
According to Axios’ Marc Caputo, though, Trump made no “specific ask” and was told the matter was being “independently reviewed.”
That’s irrelevant to the Trump haters: “Even FIFA is engaged in Trump crime family corruption,” former congressman Adam Kinzinger frothed.
It should come as no surprise that those who have allowed Trump’s existence to warp their minds beyond recognition are upset that he may have played some role in securing this remedial action.
But the irrational hysterics are the fruit of the destructive, distinctly anti-American worldview of the ascendant progressive left.
No pride
Balogun never deserved the punishment doled out to him by a single referee — and FIFA itself, long dogged by allegations of bribery and similar sleaziness, has made other exceptions to allow certain red-card recipients, including Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, to circumvent suspensions they were supposed to serve.
No worthwhile principle compels the functioning conscience to demand Balogun serve out the sentence for a crime he didn’t commit. Yet the Blame America First crowd is demanding exactly that.
Because for the self-assured moral relativist, true north is neither what is just, nor what is in their country’s best interest, but what is fashionable.
The question isn’t “What is right?” but, “What will my brunch mates think?”
And what they think is whatever Howard Zinn and John Oliver told them to.
That’s why they drooled over New York City Mayor Mamdani’s unpatriotic assault on the adoptive nation to which he owes so much on the occasion of its 250th birthday.
That’s why DNC Chairman Ken Martin compared the government of Iran, which massacred tens of thousands of its civilians in a matter of days earlier this year, to his own.
That’s why fewer and fewer Democrats feel any pride at all in being an American.
But to everyone outside of their privileged, conformist bubble, they appear only to be degrading themselves in service to an ignoble cause.
Isaac Schorr is a columnist and former senior editor at Mediaite.