What a great country. Imboden may kneel because of American exceptionalism.

To better grasp the irony of Imboden’s gripes, consider the athletes alongside him on the podium. The second-place winners hail from Venezuela; third-place from Cuba.

VENEZUELA

flag kneeling: If a Venezuelan knelt during his country’s “Gloria al Bravo Pueblo” national anthem, his government would punish him. Human Rights Watch reports “the leadership of President Chávez and now President Maduro, the accumulation of power in the executive branch and the erosion of human rights guarantees have enabled the government to intimidate, censor, and prosecute its critics.”

Amnesty International documents Venezuela forcibly expelling and deporting journalists critical of the government while closing at least 50 radio stations.

Civilian protesters, who merely hope to eat, are arrested and tried in military courts. The government detains and tortures children of adults who challenge the government. One can imagine the plight of an athlete using an international stage to embarrass the Maduro administration.

Racism: Venezuelan racism dates back to the transatlantic slave trade, in which the country imported more than 500,000 African slaves. One region of the United States sanctioned slavery, involving fewer slaves, for less than 100 years. Venezuela had slavery nationwide for nearly 300 years.

“A white-minority has dominated commerce and politics in Venezuela since the days of slavery in the 19th century,” reports the independent socialist publication Monthly Review.

In his book “Ethnicity and Revolution: The Political Economy of Racism in Venezuela,” author Jesús María Salas describes Venezuela’s “profound racism” directed at Afro-Venezuelans, indigenous peoples and others berated as “vermin,” “mixed breeds,”  “barefoot,” and “rabble.”

LGBT rights: Venezuela strictly forbids same-sex marriage. The government won’t let same-sex couples adopt children. Members of the LGBT community have no enforced protections from discrimination in the workplace or housing.

Immigration: As foreigners break into the United States, millions of Venezuelans flee rampant racism and economic policies that have store shelves empty and inflation approaching 8-million percent. Venezuelans ate most of the country’s zoo animals in their quest to survive. President Donald Trump this month said his administration would protect asylum-seeking Venezuelan immigrants from deportation, just as previous administrations protected Cubans.