Subcommittee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-TX, speaks as FAA Acting Administrator Daniel Elwell, NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt, and DOT I.G. Calvin Scovel appear before a Senate Transportation subcommittee hearing on commercial airline safety, on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, 3/27/19, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

“All I’m looking forward to on July 4th is a lecture from Colin Kaepernick on why we shouldn’t celebrate it,” said no one ever.

Unfortunately, that’s exactly what the former NFL quarterback-turned-social justice warrior did on Thursday in a tweet he posted quoting abolitionist and statesman Frederick Douglass:

“What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? This Fourth of July is yours, not mine…There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour.”

– Frederick Douglass pic.twitter.com/IWLujGCJHn — Colin Kaepernick (@Kaepernick7) July 4, 2019

Outside of retweets, Kaepernick hadn’t posted anything to his Twitter account since May 20th.

Kaepernick was a key factor in Nike’s recent decision not to sell Betsy Ross flag-themed shoes, which Democratic politicians like 2020 presidential candidate Julián Castro and California Gov. Gavin Newsom praised.

Historians and extremist group experts noted at the time that, contra to Kaepernick’s historical ignorance, the Betsy Ross flag is not a symbol of slavery, racism, and oppression.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) saw the Douglass quote and who posted it, and hopped on to Twitter in the middle of Independence Day festivities to add some much-needed context:

You quote a mighty and historic speech by the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass, but, without context, many modern readers will misunderstand. Two critical points: https://t.co/x4oLfa9DrH — Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) July 5, 2019

(1) This speech was given in 1852, before the Civil War, when the abomination of slavery still existed. Thanks to Douglass and so many other heroes, we ended that grotesque evil and have made enormous strides to protecting the civil rights of everybody. — Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) July 5, 2019

(2) Douglass was not anti-American; he was, rightly and passionately, anti-slavery. Indeed, he concluded the speech as follows: — Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) July 5, 2019

“Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented, of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. — Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) July 5, 2019

“There are forces in operation, which must inevitably, work the downfall of slavery. ‘The arm of the Lord is not shortened,’ and the doom of slavery is certain. — Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) July 5, 2019

“I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from ‘the Declaration of Independence,’ the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age.” — Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) July 5, 2019

Cruz ended his Twitter thread by encouraging everyone to read the full speech in context:

Let me encourage everyone, READ THE ENTIRE SPEECH; it is powerful, inspirational, and historically important in bending the arc of history towards justice: https://t.co/il9WNrmxho — Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) July 5, 2019

National Review‘s Charles C.W. Cooke added a few tweets of his own quoting Douglass’s speech, and concluded by asking an important question of Kaepernick that he is unlikely to respond to:

All of these quotes, @Kaepernick7, are contained within the same speech that you quoted. Are you afflicted by some ugly malady that prevents you from finishing reading a document? Or did you just want to provide an impression wholly unsupported by the evidence? — Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) July 5, 2019

I think the answer is clear.

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—Based in North Carolina, Sister Toldjah is a former liberal and a 15+ year veteran of blogging with an emphasis on media bias, social issues, and the culture wars. Read her Red State archives here. Connect with her on Twitter.–