Tag: Cake

No MAGA Allowed
Never mind making a cake. You can refuse to serve someone simply because you don’t like their politics according to a judge in New York. There are two differences between this and the cake ruling just handed down by the Supreme Court.  The first is that wearing a MAGA hat doesn’t make you constitutionally protected.  Yeah, I know, free speech.  That’s not what they argued.  They said Make America Great Again was a religious expression.  I didn’t really buy that either.
The other difference is that the bar wasn’t asked to serve him a specialty drink celebrating his politics.  In other words, it’s not like he walked in and asked the bar to make him a MAGA Mai Tai*.  He was refused general services based on his politics.
Actually, this is a victory for the freedom of business owners. The judge’s interpretation is that since he wasn’t kicked out specifically for his religious views (or any other civil rights protected status), it was A-OK. So you could refuse to serve someone for being a liberal, for wearing saggy pants, or many other reasons.  You could kick out anyone who wears a suit and tie on Sunday morning and say it was how they dressed, not their religion.
In Chicago, if you happen to be one of the handful of conservatives left, you could even refuse to serve blacks just with the basic assumption that they are all voting Democrat. The DNC assumes that, it’d be reasonable for you to as well. Of course, everyone has conveniently forgotten that back in the day it WAS the Democrats who refused to serve blacks.
Freedom not to serve people is also a victory for consumers. After all, if someone hates you because of how you look, what you wear, or who you vote for, why would you want to give them money? If I’m about to walk into an establishment and buy their stuff, I actually wouldn’t mind if they met me with a sign that says “don’t pay me, I hate you”. Or as Trump haters put it, “I love everyone except for you”. Sounds more warm and fuzzy when they put it that way.
*MAGA Mai Tai – Regular Mai Tai served in a whiskey glass so you get the fruity goodness but still look macho drinking it. No umbrellas.

When the Left does it

What do you do when there is a class of Americans who are refused services, discriminated against in public, and made to feel unsafe in what are normally safe spaces?  If you are wearing a safety pin, you rush to their aid.  Right?  What do you do if you are a conservative?

Time for conservatives to put their money where their mouth is. When someone refuses to bake your cake or make your dress, you recognize that person for what they are and take your business elsewhere. We are Americans. We don’t need safe spaces, safety pins, or the government forcing people to serve us. If Sophie Theallet is too bigoted and hateful to take Melania’s money, why would she want to give it to them? There are plenty of dress designers in the world who will be happy to serve the First Lady of the United States.

All that aside, oh the irony. Sophie Theallet writes a letter about how she wants to overcome bigotry and prejudice because she is an immigrant to this country. Her method of overcoming? Being bigoted and prejudiced by refusing to serve an immigrant.

Another incident came last night when Mike Pence took his family to see Hamilton on Broadway.  If there is one thing the Hamilton experience has taught us, it is that we are far more alike than we thought.

The crowd booing Mike Pence demonstrated the sort of hatred that the alt right had of Obama.

Victor Dixon demonstrated the sort of ignorance that many right wing radio and cable commentators had about Obama bringing Sharia law to the US. The fact that he actually felt like he has to lecture Pence on their administration representing all Americans demonstrates the sort of bigotry and bias that Republicans have been accused of for the last 8 years.  

Funny side note, the thing that scares the Left the most about Pence is the Religious Freedom Act.  That could actually be used to protect Sophie Theallet if Melania decided to sue her for refusal of services.

Trump’s call for the theater to be a safe space is a reaction to their hatred and ignorance. But it’s also the same sort of snowflake behavior we have mocked the left for over the last 8 years. Republicans aren’t supposed to call for safe spaces and apologies. We’re supposed to put our big boy pants on and ignore it, stand up to it, or decide we don’t want to spend $1,000 a seat to be discriminated against and move on. Maybe we should give him a pass. He was a Democrat up until recently.

A theater in Broadway is going to be full of liberals. This isn’t a surprise to anyone.

The Hamilton incident was a great role reversal. I could picture the exact same thing happening in an all white church in the south in 2008. Obama and his family come to that church one Sunday morning. The parishioners boo him, they all voted for McCain. Most of them believe Obama is secretly a Muslim. All of them believe he is a racist.

The pastor gets up and admonishes them to stop booing. And then he turns to Obama and says this:

“We, sir, we are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our religious freedoms, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights. We truly hope this sermon has inspired you to uphold our American values and work on behalf of all of us. All of us.”

Obama leaves. The interaction is widely reported in the media. Vice President Joe Biden gets on his twitter account and types:

“Our wonderful President was harassed at an all white church in the South this morning. Church should be a special and safe place. The pastor was very rude to a very good man, Barack Obama. Apologize!”

So view this whole incident through that lens. And then ask yourself if you are one side of the same coin, or something different and better.