Trey Gowdy: Since When is the National Anthem so Offensive?

In an interview with Fox News on Thursday, Rep. Trey Gowdy blasted new efforts by social justice warriors to cancel the national anthem. Not content with merely taking a knee when the “Star-Spangled Banner” plays, today’s racial warriors want to get rid of the anthem altogether, criticizing it as a racist relic from America’s past that has no part in modern society.

Stirring the pot, we have Yahoo Music editor Lyndsey Parker, who wrote a piece last week castigating anthem-composer Francis Scott Key as a racist and “known slaveholder.”

“Is it time for this country to dispense with ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ and adopt a new anthem with a less troubling history and a more inclusive message?” she asked.

Oh…are you asking us?

If the personal life of Francis Scott Key isn’t enough to convince you that the national anthem should be discarded, what about the long-forgotten additional verses that literally no one knows about? Those verses gave Tulsa Athletic – a semi-pro soccer team – justification to replace the anthem with “This Land is Your Land,” a socialist offering from folk singer Woody Guthrie.

“After carefully reviewing ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ lyrics and meaning, including the third verse which mentions ‘No refuge could save the hireling and slave / From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave…,’ Tulsa Athletic came to the decision that the song does not align with the club’s core values. While this verse is rarely sung, Tulsa Athletic does not believe ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ represents or unites their diverse players, fans, and community,” the team announced.

Let’s hope “This Land is Your Land” doesn’t have any problematic verses hidden deep in the song.

“What started as a legitimate conversation about inequities in our justice system has now morphed into ‘Let’s just change the entire country and change the entire culture,'” Gowdy said on Fox News.

The congressman noted that Guthrie was thought to be a “communist sympathizer” who likely “wrote that song because he didn’t like ‘God Bless America.'”

“So, I promise you that song is going to offend someone too, and pretty soon we’re just going to be humming the theme to ‘The Young and The Restless’ or find something that doesn’t offend anyone,” he mused. “I mean, the ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ hasn’t changed in the 55 years I’ve been on Earth, and up until about 24 hours ago, I never heard anyone offended by it.

“So, if we’re going through a period in our country where we’re going to look at everything … I mean, think about this – in every federal building there is a picture of Donald Trump. Okay?” Gowdy continued. “Half the country doesn’t like that. And, five years ago, there was a picture of Barack Obama and half the country didn’t like that. So, are we going to go into federal buildings and start taking down pictures we don’t like? I mean, where does this stop?”

We’re increasingly certain that the answer to that question is: It doesn’t stop. Ever.

Until, that is, we grow a national backbone and tell these SJW freaks to sell their poisoned wares somewhere else.