A medieval knight would challenge an opponent by throwing his "heavy, armored glove," or gauntlet, at the feet of his opponent, thus "throwing down the gauntlet."  After years of Republican indifference and acquiescence to the erosion of our values and our heritage, President Trump has finally thrown down the gauntlet at the feet of the progressive left, challenging their attempt to discredit our anthem, our flag, and all they represent.

Rush Limbaugh on his Tuesday show said the NFL take-a-knee protest is "exactly what it looks like when the disease, the cancer of liberalism infects and corrupts an institution."  And the frantic reaction to the President's challenge is exactly what you get when someone, finally, dares to throw down the gauntlet.

Until Donald Trump came along, no Republican since President Reagan ever threw down the gauntlet about anything, submitting and succumbing instead to every media narrative, to every liberal agenda, to every Obama apology for America, and to every attempt to eviscerate our shared history and heritage.

Kurt Schlichter, writing at townhall.com, says of the reaction to Trump's throwing down the gauntlet on the anthem and the flag (emphasis original):

Now we suddenly discover that fighting back is horribly uncouth and déclassé and "Oh, well I never!"

... We aren't going away; business as usual is over. We aren't just giving up, tossing away our country, and submitting to the ruling caste. We were nice with the Tea Party. Trump's not as nice. 

Schlichter further notes that we are awakening to "the indisputable truth of our enemy's implacable hatred for us and everything we hold dear – like America."  "This is how they seek to break us."

What have Republicans ever done about any of this?  The "loyal opposition," which we have elected in vain for years, has been loyal to no one but its own members.

• An Obamacare law put in place through a farce of democracy is loyally opposed by self-serving Republicans only until it is time for action.
• A Republican House and Senate hold endless hearings on Russian collusion, while a special prosecutor hamstrings the Trump presidency, all while Hillary Clinton sells books and jokes about wiping her email server "with a cloth."
• An aide to Democrat Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz is arrested attempting to flee the country after transferring $300,000 to "an account in Pakistan," where his wife had already fled.
• The attorney general overseeing the "Fast and Furious" gun-running scheme is held in contempt of Congress but is now leading the Democrats' attempt to redistrict the 2020 congressional map.
• The IRS delay and denial of Tea Party applications for non-profit status in advance of the 2012 election also results in a contempt of Congress finding, but no penalty is enforced there, either.
• Former President Obama creates the narrative that "police acted stupidly" in the 2009 arrest of Harvard professor Skip Gates, a prelude to fanning the flames over Ferguson, Missouri and a precursor to the current NFL protests.
• Meanwhile, the history-erasing left is busy taking down any historical statue leftists can get away with removing.

Victor Davis Hanson, writing at American Greatness, adds to the list the Susan Rice Benghazi video story and the James Comey Hillary Clinton "matter."  Add to that the Samantha Powers "unmasking" matter.

For the icing on the corruption cake, add the "Obama administration's massive shakedown of Big Banks over the mortgage crisis" that was used to fund "radical leftist groups that are now vehemently opposing the policies of President Trump," as reported at American Thinker.

And where has the Republican-led Congress been on all of these matters?  Pretty much nowhere. 

Enter President Trump.  Faced with the reality of sending our sons and daughters to defend our way of life under the American flag, many returning with no legs or worse, the president has seen enough.

After years of Republican capitulation and abdication to the media-driven left-wing agenda, President Trump has finally thrown down the gauntlet.