Robert Reich on 2024 MidTerm Winners and Losers
Robert Reich says it better than I ever could and invites us to share:
The REAL Winners and Losers
The big picture of what happened Tuesday
7 HOURS AGO
Friends,
Rather than regurgitate the particular wins and losses that occurred Tuesday, I thought it more useful, at this point, to look at the big picture and identify the largest overall winners and losers for the nation as a whole.
Biggest winner: A diverse, equitable, and inclusive America. It’s Trump’s DEI nightmare. Georgia voters elected Keisha Lance Bottoms, the first Black female governor in the nation. Texas chose Gina Hinojosa, the state’s first Latina governor and first Democratic governor in more than 30 years. California elected Xavier Becerra, the state’s first Latino governor. New Mexico chose Deb Haaland, the nation’s first female Native American governor. Florida elected Byron Donalds, the first Black governor in Florida’s history (a Republican).
For the U.S. Senate, New Hampshire chose Chris Pappas, that chamber’s first openly gay member. Minnesotans picked Peggy Flanagan, the first Native American woman elected to the Senate. Michiganders chose Abdul El-Sayed, the first Muslim elected to the Senate.
These are remarkable wins. Some are attributable to a surge in voting by Black people, many of whom were understandably incensed at efforts to push Black representatives out of Congress through overt racial gerrymandering. And by Latinos, enraged at ICE’s wanton arrests and detentions. Women upset by Republican efforts to outlaw abortion in their states. And LGBTQ+ people, angry about the blatant bigotry of Trump and his Republican enablers.
But many straight white men and women also disagree with Trump’s narrow definition of America. It turns out that the nation is far more diverse, equitable, and inclusive than Trump or his Republican enablers want (or believe) it to be. Trump and his enablers tried to make us fear and hate one another over our many differences. They indubitably failed.
Another winner: The new South. For as long as anyone can remember, the states that comprised the Old Confederacy have been regressive, conservative, intolerant, and, at least since the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Republican.
No longer. On Tuesday, three of the four most populous Southern states (Texas, North Carolina, and Georgia) voted for Democrats up and down their tickets. Texas Democrats carried every statewide office from governor through lieutenant governor, attorney general, and even railroad commissioner. North Carolina and Georgia Democrats also scored stunning victories.
The biggest surprise was Annie Andrews’s win over Darline Graham in South Carolina’s Senate contest. As I write this, another possible gobsmacker: Black Democrat Scott Colom may actually win the Mississippi Senate seat held by Cindy Hyde-Smith.
Even Democratic losers in the South came remarkably close to winning: Democratic Senate candidate Jamie Davis was within a hair’s breadth of victory in Louisiana. Florida’s Angie Nixon almost snatched the Senate seat there.
What accounts for this new South? Partly a large and growing professional class (in metro Atlanta, North Carolina’s “research triangle,” and Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, and Austin) combined with an increasing flow of young workers and their families from other states, seeking more affordable housing. Add to this, an abundance of Latino and Asian immigrants. All told, the new South is more tolerant than the old. Much of it is also more sophisticated and more educated.
A third winner: Decency. During the run-up to the 2026 midterms, American voters were inundated with Republican attack ads, inflamed rhetoric, and personal smears against Democratic rivals. Those efforts backfired. Americans soundly rejected the politics of hate and fear, and embraced common decency.
Trump, JD Vance, and RFK Jr. did their worst to fuel Islamophobia against Michigan’s Dr. El-Sayed. Trump claimed if El-Sayed won, he’d “invite hordes of jihadis to our shores.” RFK Jr. baselessly linked El-Sayed to the Muslim Brotherhood. Their fear-mongering obviously didn’t work.
Vance suggested that Texas Democratic Senatorial candidate James Talarico is gay. Another backfire.
Ohioans were so turned off by Trump-endorsed billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy’s attack ad against his Democratic opponent Dr. Amy Acton — using Acton’s mother whom Acton hadn’t seen since she was 12, when her father was accused of raping her — that the ad may have helped fuel Acton’s win, the first Democrat to win Ohio’s governorship since 2006. (Trump thought the ad just fine, and Vance even blasted fellow Republicans who spoke out against the ad, calling their criticism “disgusting” and telling them to “stop whining” because “politics is a tough business.”)
Since Trump came on the scene, many Republicans have eagerly imitated Trump’s scurrilous character assaults. Such smears have become so common that we tend to forget that most Americans don’t particularly like this form of politics. They prefer Barack Obama’s tempered rhetoric and the late John McCain’s dignified and respectful way of disagreeing. Now, after the 2026 midterms, perhaps decency is back.
So who were the biggest losers? Besides Trump and his Republican sycophants, the biggest losers are the mega donors and super PACs that poured record amounts of money into failed Republican candidacies.
Top awards for strategic stupidity go to the crypto industry (which tried unsuccessfully to derail Democrat Sherrod Brown in Ohio); AIPAC (which did everything it could to block El-Sayed and prevent any mention of Israel’s genocide in Gaza); the AI industry, which spent loads of cash trying but failing to allay voter’s concerns about data centers; and Elon Musk, who sought, single-handedly, to save Ken Paxton’s doomed Senate campaign in Texas.
Musk deserves his own special place in the loser’s circle. The richest person in the world became the poster child in the 2026 midterms for billionaire greed, legalized bribery, and corporate welfare. He sunk almost a half billion dollars into failed Republican campaigns, the most that any single human being has ever spent on elections — and for naught. After Tuesday’s blowout, shares in Musk’s SpaceX and Tesla dropped off a cliff.
Once they’re in control of Congress, Democrats will want to know what personal data and information Musk ran off with when he ran his ill-fated Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), under whose authority he throttled Ukraine’s access to his Starlink satellites, and why the U.S. government should continue to grant him an effective monopoly on satellites anyway rather than nationalize Starlink. To say Musk will be on the hot seat understates the temperature where he’ll be sitting.
In sum, considering the overall winners and losers from the 2026 midterms, I’d say America came out way ahead.
Texas! It’s Time to Start Flipping Tables!
There was a movie we watched, came out in 2024, Civil War (this is the IMDB link). Exciting, scary movie speculating about the next civil war in the United States of America, pitting a unified Texas and California against a co-alition of the conservatives. What I couldn’t figure out then was how could it be Texas and California? Texas was part of the conservative core?
And then, Tuesday night, the paradigm shifted. All things became possible. The most gracious acceptance speech given by James Talarico, created options that would have been unthinkable. I want to share that speech with you:
We just took back Texas. We just proved that all the money in the world is no match for the people of Texas. We just showed that a politics of division is no match for a politics of love. And we just sent a message to every billionaire mega donor, every trillionaire mega donor, every corrupt defender of this broken political system in this state, in this country: Power belongs to the people.
I’m reminded of that story from scripture of a shepherd boy who goes up against a giant. For 40 days, Goliath teases and taunts. On the day of the fight, he shows up in full armor. He’s carrying so many weapons. He needs someone else to carry his shield. In this race, we went up against our own Goliath.
The richest man in the world, the most powerful man in the world and the entire Washington D.C. establishment. David wasn’t as big or as strong as Goliath. He didn’t have as many weapons, but he had hope. He had faith and he had a slingshot. You were my slingshot. The people of Texas were my slingshot. And tonight, and tonight we defeated Goliath.
Scripture has taught me, my own life has taught me, always bet on the underdog. Before I was a politician, I was a public school teacher. I taught language arts at Rhodes Middle School on the west side of San Antonio. And as I always say, teaching middle school is the best preparation for politics.
The West side is a beautiful historic neighborhood. It’s also one of the poorest zip codes in the entire state of Texas. Every day, my students struggled heroically to overcome a rigged system. My students weren’t just kids. They were survivors, dreamers, fighters. I saw it in their eyes every day, this unshakeable resolve, this unconquered spirit.
Growing up, I saw that same fight in my mother, a preacher’s daughter from Laredo who left home at 19.She moved up to Austin and met my birth father, a 21-year-old high school dropout whose drinking problem sometimes led to violence. One night he became abusive again, but that night, that night, my mother’s love rose to meet that abuse. She packed all our stuff into her little Ford Escort. She drove me to the hotel where she worked. She begged the manager to let us stay in one of the rooms until we found this little apartment in East Austin. There wasn’t room for a nursery, so I slept in a crib in her closet and she was so proud of that closet. She decorated it with pictures and toys. No one was going to tell her it wasn’t a nursery.
Always, always bet on the underdog. We were the underdogs in this race. We went up against nearly 40 years of doubt and disillusionment.We went up against more than $300 million, more than any Senate campaign in American history. We went up against all the negative ads, smear campaigns, foreign bots and AI deep fakes that money can buy. Those attacks were the final howls of a dying establishment. The death rattle of a status quo that knows its days are numbered.
They played dirty because they were desperate, but we never lost hope. We never lost faith. And against big money and long odds, we took our power back. Always, always bet on the underdog.
We built a movement unlike any this state has ever seen. We united Texans from all backgrounds and beliefs onto one team to take on this broken, corrupt political system. First time voters, three time Trump voters, working people from every corner of this state who are fed up and ready for change.
This win, this win is for every underdog who’s been counted out and left behind. This win is for every teacher and every nurse, for every farmer and every rancher, for every young person who’s trying to buy a home, for every parent who’s trying to put food on the table. This win, this win is for every Texan who’s ever wondered if anyone is listening. I heard you. We heard you. And tonight the world hears you.
To the Texans who supported this movement, I am humbled by your trust and I will work every day to be worthy of it. And to the Texans who didn’t vote for me, I will be your senator too. I will always serve you. I will always fight for you. This win is not about the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. It’s much bigger than that.
There is something broken in America. Our economic system is broken. Our political system is broken. Even our relationships with each other feel broken. That’s because the most powerful people in the world want it that way.
My granddad was a Baptist preacher in South Texas, and when I was little, he told me that we follow a barefoot rabbi who gave us two commandments, love God and love neighbor, because there is no love of God without love of neighbor.
Every single person bears the image of the sacred. Every single person is holy, not just my neighbor who looks like me, not just my neighbor who prays like me, not just my neighbor who votes like me. I am called to love all of my neighbors the way I love myself.
Because despite our differences, we all want the same things; a safe neighborhood, a good job, a high quality, well-funded public school, and the ability to see a doctor when we need one.
But the billionaires who own the social media algorithms, who own the cable news networks, who own the politicians fighting on our screens, they want us at each other’s throats. They want us focused on how we’re different instead of on how we’re the same. They want us looking left and right at each other instead of looking up at them.
The real fight in this country is not left versus right. It is top versus bottom. The people at the top work so hard to keep us angry and divided, because our unity is a threat to their wealth and their power. We saw it in this race. We saw it in every billionaire funded attack ad.
The people at the top divide us by party, by race, by gender, by religion, by culture, so we don’t notice that they are picking our pockets. That they are defunding our schools, that they are gutting our healthcare, that they are raising taxes on all of us while they cut taxes for themselves. It is the oldest strategy in the world, divide and conquer.
But tonight we sent a crystal clear message to the people at the top. We will not be conquered. I think it’s safe to say that we are tired of being pitted against each other. We are tired of being told to hate each other. It has been 10 years of this kind of politics, politics as blood sport, politics as trolling and owning, politics as professional wrestling.
It tears families apart. It ends friendships and it leaves us all feeling terrible all the time. People across the political spectrum are hungry for a different kind of politics. Not a politics of hate, not a politics of fear, not a politics of division, but a politics of love.
My faith teaches me that love is the strongest force in the universe. Love is not passive. Love is not neutral. Love is not weak. Love requires that we stand between the bullies and the bullied. Love requires that we look evil in the eye and not blink. That kind of love has always been a threat to the powers that be. That kind of love is revolutionary. That kind of love is creative.
Hate is predictable. Hate is boring. Hate can’t lower our energy bills. Hate can’t teach a child to read. Hate can’t build a future. But what hate can’t do, love can.Love can turn a student into a scholar. Love can turn a closet into a nursery. Love can turn an enemy into a friend. Love can turn a campaign into a movement. Love, love can heal what’s broken in America. We can’t defeat the politics of division with more division. We can’t win that game. We have to change the game.
In my experience, when you extend an open hand rather than a closed fist, you’ll be surprised by who takes that hand. We didn’t win this race by alienating our neighbors, or shaming our neighbors, or ridiculing our neighbors. We embodied a new kind of politics, a politics rooted in a deep love for our state, for our country, and most importantly, for all of our neighbors.
We mobilized. We mobilized our 60,000 volunteers in every corner of the state, and together we delivered bottled water to Sand Branch, a community south of Dallas with no running water. We donated school supplies to an elementary school in El Cenizo, a small town on the border. We collected more than 20,000 pounds of groceries for families in Fort Worth who are struggling under the high cost of living.
Before the world changes in ways you see on TV or read about in newspapers, the world changes person to person, neighbor to neighbor. In each moment when you choose to be kind, in each neighbor we choose to love, in each prayer that we save for someone who would not pray for us in return. This is how we won Texas. This is a win the size of Texas. And now we have a mandate the size of Texas.
This election was about chasing a vision of what this state can be. Texas public schools that are the envy of the nation, a Texas economy that is second to none, and Texas families that are stronger and healthier than they’ve ever been before. It won’t happen overnight, but a giant state deserves giant dreams. And we know how to get there. We must get big money out of our politics, so no billionaire or trillionaire can buy our elections.We must unrig this economic system that only benefits the top 1%. We must pass universal healthcare, so no one goes bankrupt just because they get sick. We must invest in our teachers and our students, so every underdog has a fighting chance. We must end these corrupt forever wars that are driving up prices and killing our great men and women in uniform.
And we must heal the deep spiritual corruption at the root of all of these crises. We must bridge the divides between us and repair the ties that bind us. We forged a new kind of politics here in the Lone Star State, an answer to this decade of division.
We showed that when working people come together across every dividing line, we can do extraordinary things. We won this race because people who are desperate for change now are going to get change.
That old politics is dying and a new politics is being born through each of us, through every underdog, through every David against every Goliath, through every Texan who believed in our state and believed in this movement. Now the real work begins.
2,000 years ago when the people at the top hurt his neighbors, that barefoot rabbi didn’t stay in his room and pray. He walked into the seat of power and he flipped over the tables of injustice. As this movement heads to the seat of power, as we head to the United States Senate, we know what this moment requires of us.
Texas, it’s time to start flipping tables.
What the Victors are Saying
I love the messages I am reading from the Democrats, summarized in this speech by Kentucky Governer Andy Beshear:
“Remember, we’ve got to celebrate today but we’ve got to govern tomorrow,” he said in a video posted to the social platform X. “It’s now on us. The American people say they trust us more than Republicans to deliver them results. So no getting cocky, no getting arrogant. Our job now is to better the lives of people, to bring down the cost of groceries, to bring down the cost of gas, to make sure anybody who’s sick can see a doctor, and that all of our kids have enough to eat.”
The focus is on good governance. Governance by the people, for the people. Keeping it simple. Acting in good faith, with good will. On! On!
Celebrating D E I
I will tell you that not all of my candidates won last night, but the races tightened in blood red Florida, and Florida elected the first black governor in the USA. And then, another! And then, a Native American!
In my wildest dreams, I never expected the abundance, the sheer waterfall of good people elected to office, shifting the entire tone of our Congress and our Senate. In the face of vile attacks, they returned good humor.
I got a good night’s sleep even before the last returns were being tallied. Some amazing races, some amazing victories, some amazingly tight races where no one expected them. The dazzling backlash against the greedy attempts at redistricting to insure a win.
LOL at the big bully!
Anu Garg: A Word a Day
For a while, I taught English as a Second Language, or English as another language; most of my students had two or three languages already and I was in awe of them. Most of them, like me, loved words, and I would always tell them about Any Garg, and his daily e-mail of A Word a Day. I love the words he shares, and I love the quotes he finds to support them. Today, as often, he gave me a laugh.
He adds his own note:
Some people stretch the truth. A pseudologue gives it a whole exercise program.
| Wordsmith.org | The magic of words |
Nov 2, 2026
This week’s theme
Words to describe people
This week’s words
pseudologue
A.Word.A.Daywith Anu Garg
In Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well, one character describes another:
…he’s a most notable coward, an infinite and endless liar, an hourly promise-breaker, the owner of no one good quality…
Fortunately, the play is more than 400 years old. And it’s fiction. I can’t think of anyone today who fits that description.
For our sake and the sake of the rest of the world, let’s hope tomorrow’s US elections end well.
Meanwhile, this week we’ll feature five words to describe people. Surely, no one person could qualify for all five. Can you think of any?
pseudologue
PRONUNCIATION:
(SOO/SYOO-duh-log) 
MEANING:
noun: A habitual liar.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek pseudo- (false) + logos (word, speech). Earliest documented use: 1949.
NOTES:
Some people stretch the truth. A pseudologue gives it a whole exercise program.
USAGE:
“For each pseudologue, the internal motive is different (and often hard to determine because of the obvious difficulty of ascertaining an honest family history).”
Shiv Malik; The Messenger; Faber & Faber; 2019.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:If the truth doesn’t serve us, what does that say about us? -Lois McMaster Bujold, author (b. 2 Nov 1949)
Spiderman Theology
I love it when the Lectionary surprises me. Today is this verse in Luke 12: 32-48, the very last verse:
Luke 12: 41-48
41 Peter said, ‘Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for everyone?’42And the Lord said, ‘Who then is the faithful and prudent manager whom his master will put in charge of his slaves, to give them their allowance of food at the proper time? 43Blessed is that slave whom his master will find at work when he arrives. 44Truly I tell you, he will put that one in charge of all his possessions. 45But if that slave says to himself, “My master is delayed in coming”, and if he begins to beat the other slaves, men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk, 46the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour that he does not know, and will cut him in pieces,* and put him with the unfaithful. 47That slave who knew what his master wanted, but did not prepare himself or do what was wanted, will receive a severe beating.48But one who did not know and did what deserved a beating will receive a light beating. From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded.
When I got to the end of the reading, I laughed out loud. I have used a similar quote many times: With great power comes great responsibility. It’s from Spiderman, and most people relate to Spiderman. I know I do. Today, I loved discovering its grounding in scripture.
Twenty years ago, in Kuwait, I would have posted this and asked my fellow bloggers if there were comparable scriptures from their books. A lively discussion would ensue. I would learn surprising similarities, and disturbing differences. I miss those discussions.
Love Those Norwegians: Making Shithouses Great Again
Just as this explodes into one of the worlds worst elections ever, Norway comes up with a Visit Norway theme that gives us all an opportunity to laugh. And to admire their excellence in design. Not a sign of gilt.
Huge thanks to the Guardian for this timely story.
‘We make shit houses great again’: Visit Norway cleans up after Trump’s insult
Tourist board responds with toilet humour after US president expresses ire over failure to win Nobel peace prize, labelling it a ‘shithouse country’
Jon Henley Europe correspondentThu 29 Oct 2026 13.22 EDTShare
Some might find it decidedly incommodious to be dumped on by Donald Trump as a “shithouse country”. Not the Norwegian tourist board, which chose instead to lift the lid on some of the nation’s loveliest lavatories.
“Are these the world’s best shit houses?” asked Visit Norway on its website, days after the US president vented his fury once more over failing to win the Nobel peace prize by describing Norway as a “shithouse country” at a rally on Sunday.
“Norway makes shit houses great again!” the agency continued above pictures of some of the country’s most striking public conveniences, adding: “These toilets are worth a visit, both when you really have to go – and when you don’t.”
Trump delivered his tirade at a rally in Michigan days before the US midterm elections. “Frankly, Norway sucks. Norway has become a shithouse country, actually,” he declared, using a term he has previously applied to Haiti, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.
He added that he would welcome migrants from some countries but not Norway, “because I didn’t get the Nobel Prize”. Earlier this month, Trump denounced the decision to award the prize to Navi Pillay, a former international criminal court judge.
“This is an indelible stain on the country of Norway and those people that made such a disgraceful and embarrassing decision,” he said. “I never heard of this person. The Nobel peace prize has been forever discredited … And we will not forget, Norway.”
Along 18 designated scenic routes around Norway, Visit Norway said, leading architects had been tasked with transforming the humble wayside privy into an attraction in its own right. Several have since won international architecture awards.
The agency pictured a series of designer public conveniences, many of them architecturally striking and all offering breathtaking vistas overlooking fjords, beside rushing rivers and foaming waterfalls, and at stunning scenic viewpoints.
They “invite you to take your time and enjoy the scenery, even if you don’t have any business to take care of”, Visit Norway said, highlighting – among others – the restrooms at the Stegastein viewpoint in the Sognefjord region of western Norway.
This particular comfort station, the tourist board noted with uninhibited pride, had been ranked among the 10 best public toilets in the world by DesignCurial, the online architecture, design and interiors magazine.
Combining clean, minimalist lines with the fjord’s rugged and brooding landscape, the loos are famous for their large, black-tinted glass windows, which allow visitors a sweeping view from the throne while remaining invisible from the outside.
It also highlighted the unique, wave-shaped Ureddplassen loo on the wild coast of Helgeland, the southernmost district of northern Norway, hailed by several international publications as the most scenic restroom in the world.
Also featured are the solar-powered modernist bog at the Utsikten viewpoint, the “Instagram-worthy” Tungeneset loo (“looks pretty good underneath the northern lights”), and the world-famous triangular “golden toilet” on Senja island.
Jens Kjeldsen, a rhetoric professor at the University of Bergen, said that under the circumstances, Visit Norway’s response was well judged. “It’s like the bully in kindergarten,” he told NRK public television. “If you get too serious, the bully wins.”
Evgenia Egorova, a senior consultant at Visit Norway, told the broadcaster the response to its social media fightback had been immense. “The world needs a little laugh,” she said. “We thought: let’s meet them with kindness, and a little humour.”
Visit Norway said it had more stylish loos in the pipeline, including a forest-inspired latrine using dried wood from more than 60 trees. “Get ready for the pit stop of your life,” it urged, before signing off with a cheery: “Toodeloo!”
The Nobel peace prize is famously not awarded by the nation or even the government of Norway, but by the Nobel prize committee, which operates independently – something Trump “knows very well”, the foreign minister, Espen Barth Eide, said. “We have reminded him of that, in case anyone is wondering.”
Authors note – it wasn’t that long ago that the toddler in charge was talking about getting more nice (white) Norwegians to come to America. LOL.
Outraged Innocence
We learn so much about ourselves when we bear children. As Mothers, we learn the least glamorous of all virtues: self-sacrifice, endurance, patience, steadfastness and then more self-sacrifice. Caring for a newborn baby is an endless lesson in performing in spite of sleep loss, the drudgery of feeding and caring for a being who cannot in any way care for him or herself, and the realization that life will never again be the same.
And every now and then, you get the great pay off, a great gift that makes it all worthwhile. For me, it was the first time my son came home from college, majoring in Criminal Justice, and couldn’t wait to tell me what he had learned.
“Mom, the prisons are full of poor people who committed small crimes, many because they are poor! And there are rich people who cheat thousands of people of millions of dollars, and they go free!”
He was outraged. He could not understand how a country like ours could be so unfair to a majority of its citizens.
Later, as he continued with his studies, he confronted us. “We’re like the rich! Do you know anybody who has spent time in prison? There are entire communities who know how to deal with ‘the system’ because they have family members in prison!” Once again, he was outraged, and he had begun to understand what privilege is all about.
I couldn’t have been more proud. I couldn’t take any credit; he had discovered all this on his own. I was proud to have a son who could be outraged by injustice.
He has grown into a good man. He serves justice, as best he can. There are times when he will look me in the eye and tell me cynically “there is no justice; there is only winning and losing” but I see him out there, fighting the good fight against what appear to be overwhelming odds, and I know that motherhood, and all its sacrifices, is worth it to have a son with a good heart.
“I Would Do it Again”
These days, when news sources are intimidated by the government in the US, I look at reliable foreign news. Today’s story is from the BBC, a story I heard only recently on National Public Radio, about Colin Laepernick, ten years after his famous stance kneeling during the National Anthem. He made a choice, and paid the price.
“’I would do it again’ – Kaepernick reflects on price of protest, 10 years on.
“I knew the protest could potentially cost me my career…I would absolutely do it again.”
Ten years on from making the gesture that catapulted him to iconic status, but which he believes led to his exile from the sport he loved, Colin Kaepernick insists he has no regrets.
It was September 2016 when NFL star Kaepernick knelt during the US national anthem before a match as a peaceful protest against racial injustice and police brutality.
It proved both inspirational and divisive.
In his first interview with BBC Sport, Kaepernick reflects on his journey; his pride at seeing England footballers take the knee, athlete activism, the relationship between sport and politics, and the price he paid for being a figurehead for the civil rights movement.
The former quarterback says he decided to protest despite suspecting it could risk his career.
“History shows us…that is a reality for athletes”, he says.
“We also see this in broader movements, going well beyond costing someone their career, and costing people their lives. We see Malcolm X assassinated; we see MLK [Martin Luther King] assassinated, so the consequences are real.”
Having initially sat to raise awareness of the plight of black people in the US, Kaepernick first knelt during the Star-Spangled Banner before his San Francisco 49ers team played a pre-season game. It was an act he would repeat before 11 regular-season contests that year.
At the time, he said he could not stand up for – and show pride in – a flag “for a country that oppresses black people and people of colour”, adding: “This is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way.”
BBC News
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Early Voting in Florida
