My latest in PJ Media:
NASCAR driver Brandon Brown has finally broken his silence about the “Let’s Go Brandon” chant that has swept the nation.
Back in October, when Brown won the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Talladega, the crowd was chanting “F**k Joe Biden,” while NBC Sports’ Kelli Stavast told her audience that they were chanting “Let’s go, Brandon.” Brandon Brown suddenly became the most famous sports figure Americans have never heard of, as “Let’s go Brandon” became the popular way to express dissatisfaction with a disastrous Biden regime propped up by its establishment media propaganda arm. But Brown himself has remained silent about the phenomenon — until now.
On Monday, Brown published an op-ed in Newsweek, aptly titled “My Name is Brandon.” It begins: “I am Brandon, the NASCAR driver and unlikely meme. A 28-year-old who now finds himself in the middle of the American political conversation. As a pro driver, I never expected to be in the passenger seat of my own viral moment.” Since it became a meme, he says, “my name has been chanted in literally hundreds of stadiums across the country, spanning nearly every conceivable sport [and then some]. I’ve heard my name chanted in bars, at events, in the course of everyday life and even in the chambers of Congress.”
Brown explains why he kept silent about the “Let’s go Brandon” chant:
All the advice I got from those around my racing career was to stay quiet after that now-famous interview. No one knew how my sponsors would react and, in my world, there is no car to drive without the sponsors.
So, I kept quiet. I turned down more press requests than I imagined someone could ever get—especially someone just starting his NASCAR career. I was afraid of being canceled by my sponsors, or by the media, for being caught up in something that has little to do with me.
This was perfectly reasonable. Although Brandon Brown has nothing whatsoever to do with Old Joe Biden and his catastrophic alleged presidency, it’s not at all difficult to imagine petty, vindictive, and authoritarian Leftists getting Brown’s sponsors to drop him, not for anything he actually did, but for a meme that allowed the peasantry to voice their dissatisfaction with Biden’s handlers’ regime instead of docilely and gratefully accepting the socialism and economic ruin that they are serving up for us.
In fact, Brown could get canceled even now, because of his op-ed. He writes: “Racing at 200 miles per hour doesn’t give me a lot of time to think about politics. And even if it did, I have always preferred the roar of the engine to the roar of my voice. My job is to run the next lap faster than the last one. Politics has never been that interesting to me. Though, like most, I have always had the impression that politicians were likely the cause of more problems than they were the solutions.” Yet, he adds: “Those who thought this would all go away appear not to understand why millions of people are chanting my name.”
There is more. Read the rest here.
