ICE Barbie and Noem’s he’s-not-my-boyfriend, Corey Lewandowski, are outraged that the NFL has invited Bad Bunny to perform at the Super Bowl. Bad Bunny has made no secret of the fact that he is not a fan of ICE and, even worse, he sings in Spanish. This is America, after all, and speaking any language other than English is a subversive insult perpetrated by left-wing radical Democrats.
Noem has asserted that ICE agents will be at the game, presumably to arrest all the undocumented immigrants who plan to throw down their huge wads of surplus disposable income on Super Bowl tickets. She also has darkly–and strangely–warned that the NFL “won’t be able to sleep at night.” Insomnia is a terrible thing, or so I’ve heard from the Washington Monument, the poetry of Robert Frost, and my refrigerator, which also can’t sleep at night.
The NFL is seeking to expand its audience internationally, and its marketers apparently believe that Bad Bunny–a wildly popular pop performer with a huge international audience–might entice new viewers. But MAGA thinks Creed–a rock act whose last hit was in 2002–would be a far better choice, and the fact that the NFL powers have a different view is simply unAmerican.
Private entities don’t have the right to do things that MAGA doesn’t like. The same goes for universities, broadcasters, non-profits, and everyone else. After all, this is a free country, which means that everyone is free to do what Trump and his lackeys demand.
The situation has made Ms. Noem and Mr. Lewandowski very angry, which probably makes them very happy (and maybe a little turned on). But of course, this anger is largely performative. For MAGA, anger is like oxygen. It feeds their perpetual sense of victimization, justifies expanded repression, and unites them around their orange cult leader. It also provides a convenient distraction from the Epstein files.