NFL players disrespecting law enforcement and the national anthem, kneeling or sitting to protest “oppression” and “injustice.” Ratings are down and the NFL is now one of the most divisive brands in the U.S. Not a winning business formula.

America’s culture war is on full display and the left is losing badly. Public opinion is not on the side of left-wing social justice causes and moral preening. Where to begin?

Harvey Weinstein, darling of the left, Mr. Hollywood himself, Democrat fundraiser extraordinaire, an actual “god” to Meryl Streep and other liberal entertainers, falling from grace faster than his pants fell in front of an aspiring actress.

Ginned-up protests, designed to make Trump look bad, to paint him as a racist, white supremacist, the narrative set by the media and their Democrat allies. Tearing down hundred-year-old statues that bothered no one until November 8 when Donald Trump won the election.

Where are the Republicans? Where is the pushback? These events are a wonderful opportunity to explain, to teach, as Rush Limbaugh does on his radio show. Progressive politics and behaviors are on full display, ruining the NFL, lifting the veil off the Hollywood cesspool.

Recall the “hand up don’t shoot” hoax, bought hook, line and sinker by the media, President Obama, and Congressional Democrats, who wasted no time in seizing the moral high ground, posing in Congress and for the cameras with their hands up. Their high ground turned out to be quicksand, but that didn’t stop them.

I’m not suggesting that Republicans engage in silly theater or stunts like their Democrat brethren do, but their silence is deafening. Where are former presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio? I’ve heard little from them over the past year. It’s safe to assume that they will be taking another run for the White House after President Trump’s second term.

Any other Congressional Republicans want to chime in? Or other prominent Republicans such as Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush, John Kasich, Scott Walker, and others who could be speaking out as Hillary Clinton does. Despite all the preening, moralizing, and virtue signaling, Hollywood is a trash bin of bad behavior and hypocrisy. Those who claim to be for women’s rights prefer to degrade and abuse women. Or stand by and say nothing until the pile-on is well underway and it’s politically safe to tweet a bit of outrage. These are the real deplorables.

Ditto the NFL, which has become the sports branch of Hollywood. What a golden opportunity for Republicans to rightly take the moral high ground and condemn trashy behavior.

Big media, part of the left-wing establishment, has joined the progressive deplorables. Whether the New York Times sitting on the Harvey Weinstein story for over a decade, or NBC refusing to run Ronan Farrow’s Weinstein exposé. Then the daily barrage of fake news from CNN and the other alphabet networks claiming falsely that President Trump wants to increase our nuclear arsenal ten-fold or that his cabinet is on the verge of removing him from office via the 25th Amendment. Why is it only Trump calling out fake news?

This is a perfect chance for Republicans to speak out, to push back. Public opinion is on their side. Democrats keep losing elections at the national, state, and local levels. Four of the five most polarizing brands in the U.S. are CNN, NY Times, NBC News and MSNBC. A George Soros funded study found that Trump voters feel, “disconnected and disrupted by the conflation of economic and cultural change.” And that they “feel muzzled” by politically-correct dogma. These are winning issues for Trump. And for Republicans, if they choose to speak out about it.

Why are Republicans silent? Why are they not on the capitol steps speaking out as Democrats do at any perceived slight to their liberal agenda?

The Democrats never let a crisis go to waste. They find the TV cameras and microphones, making their case against their political opponents. What to Republicans do? Nothing. They remain silent. If you don’t stand for something, you stand for nothing.

Why is it only President Trump speaking up, aside from a few talk radio and Fox News hosts? Where are the elected Republicans? Adam Schiff and Maxine Waters are on TV far more than Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. Why are they silent?

Do they secretly support liberal causes? Or is their dislike of President Trump so intense that they are willing to squander their once-in-a-lifetime electoral majorities over petty grudges?

Nine months into Trump’s presidency and ObamaCare is still the law of the land. Congress struck out three times trying to repeal it. Inning over. Tax cuts don’t look like they are faring any better. Judges are being held up by the Republicans over arcane rules that they refuse to push through.

Now Trump is at bat, swinging the axe at ObamaCare through his recent executive order, decertifying the Iran deal, putting the ball back in the lap of Congress, which means little will happen. Republicans grimace and whine but still they do nothing.

Trump, as a party of one, along with 63 million supporters, will do his best to carry out his campaign promises. The 2018 midterms are just a year away, a potential bloodbath for do-nothing Republicans. They will either be sent packing in the primaries as Steve Bannon is pushing for, or ignored on election day as frustrated Republican voters stay home.

At some point, we ask why even have a legislative branch of government. Totally bought and paid for by the donor class, unable to pass meaningful legislation, devoid of any fiscal responsibility or restraint, they have abdicated relevance of their branch of government. Congress is nothing but a retirement home with, to borrow Kim Jong-un’s description, a bunch of doddering do-nothings, some of whom are taking Alzheimer’s medications. And so opportunities are squandered.

Get out in front of the culture war. Pound the left on the issues Republicans always talk about when campaigning, but are now silent about. Advance the President’s agenda, the same one they supported when running for reelection and chosen by the 63 million Americans who voted for the same last November.

The silence of the Republican lambs is deafening. As I’ve written in these pages, why vote Republican? As they say in Texas, all hat and no cattle. Thankfully President Trump wears the hat and has the cattle to advance his agenda, even without the support of a political party.

Brian C Joondeph, MD, MPS, a Denver based physician and writer. Follow him on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.