As British General Cornwallis received the news that Admiral Graves’ fleet had failed to break through De Grasse’s French fleet off of Yorktown, his mood must have been morbid.

He would have known certain defeat was at hand. He would have known that the Colonial flag that flew atop the various redoubts his men had begrudgingly surrendered would forever be universally regarded as the symbol of a free, new nation.

However, he’d be wrong about that last part.

On Thursday, news flashed nationwide that Real Salt Lake, a Major League Soccer team in Utah, had forced a married couple to take down their Colonial era Betsy Ross flag, or be ejected from the stadium. When explaining their decision to force the fans to take the flag down, Real Salt Lake CBO Andy Carroll said that the Betsy Ross flag had been adopted as a “symbol for hate groups.”

How did this happen? How is it that the symbol of a free nation got surrendered to the woke generation?

Well, Colin Kaepernick, that’s how it happened.

In July, a disgruntled and radical activist who used to throw a football for living, told a shoe company that he felt the flag was offensive. Because of that, and only because of that, a symbol that has endured through war and 242 years of our nation’s history, is now not suitable for public display.

Had Washington’s men at Redoubt 10 but known that the flag they fought and bled for would be so thoughtlessly and callously disregarded by future generations, Yorktown could have had a different outcome.

However, as disturbing as that is, there’s more. If the Betsy Ross flag cannot be displayed because it has once been used by hate groups, then can the 50-star American flag be displayed?

The 50-star American flag, and its 48-star predecessor, have both been used by the Ku Klux Klan. The American Nazi Party proudly displayed American flags and portraits of George Washington at their 1939 convention in New York?

If the Betsy Ross flag has to be abandoned because racists use it (something there’s extremely little evidence of) then certainly the Stars and Stripes have to be surrendered as well, right?

Is Real Salt Lake, and every other major American sports team, engaging in hate and divisiveness when they honor the flag prior to each of their games?

When did it become necessary for civilized society to bow to the will of morons, and surrender all of their symbols to them? Moreover, how can any civilized society survive if it does? Or, is it only American symbols that we surrender nowadays?

In the final analysis, a washed-up quarterback who sells shoes accomplished what the full might of the British Empire could not, he forced the surrender of the Colonial flag. It wasn’t a foreign invader, or power-hungry empire, it was one of our own.

But maybe that shouldn’t surprise, after all, Lincoln said it if destruction was our destiny we would be its “author and finisher.”

Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter @themightygwinn