President Trump welcomed the surviving members of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team into the Oval Office this week and signed a bill awarding them Congressional Gold Medals — a fitting tribute to men whose grit lifted a nation during a dangerous era. It was a reminder that Washington can still pause to honor true American heroes rather than pander to partisan outrage.
Captain Mike Eruzione, Jim Craig, Buzz Schneider and more of those young college kids who shocked the Soviets were on hand as lawmakers and a grateful president recognized the team’s place in history. The players even sported the white cowboy hats from the 1980 opening ceremony, a small but symbolic salute to the unity and pride that night inspired across the country.
Eruzione’s reflections after the ceremony were humble but pointed — he reminded Americans that the Miracle on Ice was never just a hockey game, it was a stand against an ideology that sought to crush freedom. That connection between sport and national resolve is the kind of history the media elites would rather erase, because it refuses to fit their narrative of decline.
It’s worth remembering the predictable left-wing freakout that followed when some members of the team showed up with campaign hats years ago — the same outlets that lionize athletes for activism suddenly tried to cancel national heroes for a hat. The backlash back then proved, yet again, that the modern media mob values performance art over patriotism and is quick to shame ordinary Americans for standing with a president who honors their service.
When people today ask what “communism” looks like, conservatives should speak plainly: it doesn’t always come with red flags and goose-stepping. Often it arrives as centralized power, censorship, woke orthodoxy, and the steady erosion of private institutions that once protected freedom — a sneaking tyranny that targets thought, speech, and faith more than overt uniforms.
That is why this moment mattered: a president chose to elevate a story of American resilience instead of joining the chorus of contempt. Honoring those players was more than nostalgia; it was a deliberate act of patriotism that says we still believe in the virtues of hard work, courage, and loyalty to country.
Hardworking Americans should take pride in the stand these men represent and in leaders who remember what unites us. Don’t let the pundit class and its cancel culture convince you that remembering our victories is a political crime — it’s the very opposite, and it’s worth defending with everything patriotic citizens have.
