You hear it everywhere: at Ole Miss football games, at anti-vaccine mandate campaigns, on the news, on Twitter or anywhere else you go. “Let’s go, Brandon!”
Some of you may be wondering who Brandon is and why so many people are cheering for him across the country, but even those who are saying it likely don’t even know, they only know the meaning behind it.
The phrase was taken from a NASCAR post-race interview at Talladega Superspeedway with NASCAR Xfinity Series winner, Brandon Brown. In the background, the Alabama crowd erupted with chants of “F— Joe Biden!” which the interviewer claimed to be “Let’s go, Brandon!” Thus, a political frenzy was born.
The phrase spread across the country, going from Facebook to any conversation between two Biden haters to Congresswoman Lauren Bobert’s dress at an event at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. While the phrase has transcended its sporty (if you consider NASCAR a sport) origins, it is still prevalent at sporting events and is constantly doing something conservatives claim to hate: bringing politics into sports.
Sports and politics have a long and intertwined history, but the debate over their relationship began after NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick knelt during the National Anthem in September 2016. Kaepernick’s action, which was in protest of oppression against Black Americans, kickstarted a discussion over how athletes should respect the United States and whether politics should have a place in sports at all.
Typically, Democrats supported Kaepernick and other athletes’ protests against injustice while Republicans rallied against political movements during sporting events, which were supposed to be their apolitical respite. It seems, however, that the tides are turning and that conservatives want politics in sports more than ever before.
Every time a Patriot yells “Let’s go, Brandon!” they are shouting a sports-derived slogan with political implications. Furthermore, I hear it shouted in the Grove, in the Vaught and many other sporting events on campus, so it feels like politics have found their true home in sports.
To be honest, I don’t care if you want to shout it or not. I don’t think any liberals are getting “further triggered” like Don Jr. says they are, they’re likely just laughing about conservatives doing exactly what they claim to hate.
For those of you who believe L.G.B. to be a comment about media coverup, using it to say the NBC correspondent intentionally covered up complaints against the president, why don’t you just say that with your chest rather than using a coded message? No one who hears your chants registers that as the message, they only hear you complaining about the president with likely little to no action to follow. The First Amendment, which every American claims to hold dear, allows Americans to voice their concerns with the president, the media or anything else a person wants to complain about, so why take the coward’s way out and say a phrase that means absolutely nothing to its intended audience?
It is comical to see Biden-haters groan while players use their political voice during a game and then unite politics and sports themselves during the following four quarters. Say it, don’t say it — I couldn’t care less. Just make a final decision on if you want sports in politics or if you don’t, and then act accordingly. If I have to hear a bunch of drunk college kids yell “Let’s go, Brandon!” during a football game so the players can use their First Amendment rights with no qualms, then I’ll happily do so.
Londyn Lorenz is the opinion editor majoring in Arabic and international studies from Perryville, Missouri.
