Democrats Could Learn Something from Former NFL Punter Chris Kluwe
Chris Kluwe's strategic protest shows exactly what's missing from the current resistance to authoritarianism.
Sometimes the most effective political statements come from unexpected places. This week, it wasn't a Democratic senator or representative who showed us how to effectively fight back against creeping authoritarianism — it was a former NFL punter in Huntington Beach, California.
Chris Kluwe, who has long been outspoken about social issues, got himself arrested at a city council meeting while protesting a proposed "MAGA" plaque for the local library. But before he did, he delivered a searing indictment of what MAGA really means:
"MAGA stands for trying to erase trans people from existence. MAGA stands for resegregation and racism. MAGA stands for censorship and book bans. MAGA stands for firing air traffic controllers while planes are crashing. MAGA stands for firing the people overseeing our nuclear arsenal. MAGA stands for firing military veterans and those serving them at the VA, including canceling research on veteran suicide. MAGA stands for cutting funds to education, including for disabled children. MAGA is profoundly corrupt, unmistakably anti-democracy and most importantly, MAGA is explicitly a Nazi movement. You may have replaced a swastika with a red hat, but that is what it is."
Then he did something crucial: He got arrested. Peacefully. Deliberately. And most importantly, strategically.
This wasn't some random outburst. Kluwe specifically told the officers he was going to go limp and needed to be carried out. He made sure his arrest would be theatrical without being violent. And guess what? It worked. The story got picked up everywhere from the LA Times to Sports Illustrated to Fox News. His message reached millions of people who would never have heard about some local library plaque otherwise.
This is exactly what Democratic leaders should be doing right now — but largely aren't.
Instead of giving stern speeches that nobody watches or issuing strongly-worded statements that nobody reads, they could be engaging in the kind of peaceful civil disobedience that actually captures public attention. The civil rights movement understood this. The suffragettes understood this. Why don't today's Democratic leaders understand it?
"I want our elected democratic officials to start engaging in civil disobedience," Kluwe told the LA Times. "People need to be aware that what's going on with this administration is leading us down a really dark path. Right now, no one is willing to step up and do that. So, if I want to ask them to do it, then I have to be willing to do it too."
He's absolutely right. We're living in an attention economy where it's increasingly difficult to break through the noise. Yet Democratic leaders keep trying to fight an authoritarian movement with press releases and parliamentary procedure. It's like bringing a stack of memos to a knife fight.
Meanwhile, a former NFL punter just showed exactly how it's done: Make a principled stand, back it up with peaceful but dramatic action, and force the media to pay attention. The coverage writes itself: Former NFL player arrested protesting MAGA display? That's a story that travels.
The response from city council member Gracey Van Der Mark perfectly illustrates why this approach works. "He wanted his five minutes of fame, and that's what he got," she said dismissively. But that was exactly the point: he got those five minutes and used them to spotlight something important.
And let's talk about what he was protesting, because it's absurd: a plaque that combines presidential slogans in an attempt to both-sides authoritarianism. "Through hope and change, our nation has built back better to the golden age of Making America Great Again," the approved text reads, trying to draw false equivalence between normal campaign slogans and an explicitly anti-democratic movement.
This is what we're up against: Local governments installing MAGA propaganda in public libraries while claiming it's just normal political discourse. And while Democratic leaders wring their hands about decorum, it took a former punter to show how to effectively fight back.
The lesson here isn't just about civil disobedience, it's about understanding how to make resistance visible in an age of information overload. Kluwe's protest worked because it combined moral clarity with media savvy. He knew that just speaking at a city council meeting wouldn't get attention, but getting arrested for peaceful protest would.
Democratic leaders need to take notes. The time for strongly-worded letters is over. We need more people willing to put themselves on the line, to engage in the kind of peaceful but dramatic resistance that actually breaks through the noise. Because right now, the other side is winning the attention war, and with it, the ability to shape the narrative.
Chris Kluwe just gave us a masterclass in effective resistance. The question is: Are Democratic leaders paying attention?
This is what I've been saying! We've had all these stories where Democratic reps/senators have sadly reported that they weren't allowed in whatever federal building the DOGE people were destroying at the time. It's like... go in anyway! Make them arrest you! Regular "median voter"-type Americans aren't going to bat an eye at Schumer holding another stern and somber press conference outside a federal building, even if it gets mainstream coverage, but they'll sure notice him getting led out in cuffs on the orders of someone with no constitutional authority. It hasn't broken through to most regular Americans that we just went through a coup because *the Dems are not acting like it was a coup.*
I get why most of our current Dem leadership won't do this (cowardly, ineffectual, still counting on rules and norms to save us), but I don't understand why no one will do it even for more crass political reasons, to get a ton of publicity and raise their profile. If some unknown Dem rep called their bluff and made Musk's goons drag him out they'd be instant frontrunners for 2028.
Once Democrats in the senate and house begin showing some spine, I 'may' resume donating, but certainly not until.