Virginia is for lovers of political correctness, as we learned this weekend when White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders was thrown out of The Red Hen in Lexington, Virginia, on Friday night. The restaurant’s owner sanctimoniously declared the establishment has to uphold “certain standards.”
Evidently she means the standard of resisting President Trump, by refusing to serve steak or french fries, or a hen that’s red - or whatever it is that they serve - to an employee of the man they loathe because they’re “tolerant,” or something like that.
This political correctness is quickly approaching dangerous and irrational levels the likes of which we’ve never witnessed before. In the age of social media anyone can seize an opportunity to publicly take a stand against President Trump, and know that it could easily become national news and give them their 15 minutes of fame in the process.
The staff at The Red Hen knew if they asked Sanders to leave they’d get national news coverage. Shortly afterward employees were lighting up Twitter with tales of how their boss gave Sarah the boot, on moral grounds of course.
This quest for media attention is becoming all too common, and as it does, we continue to see people cross the line in potentially dangerous ways.
Just last week Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was harassed while eating dinner at a Mexican restaurant near the White House by the Democratic Socialists of America. They were upset over the administration’s immigration policy - a policy that was also the law on the books during the Obama years, but his Cabinet secretaries didn’t get chased out of restaurants following screams and chants and f-bombs.
Perhaps we have celebrities like Robert De Niro, Samantha Bee, Michelle Wolf, and Peter Fonda to thank for leading the leftist mob down this road to what is approaching near anarchy.
And the media enables it all, with the result that the public now thinks this is the new normal. It is not normal. It is dangerous.
Make no mistake, this isn’t just about President Trump. Even if Vice President Mike Pence was president, this would still happen.
The PC liberals in this country increasingly seem to believe that they can bully their way to public policy goals. Celebrities instigate the behavior, the far left mimics the behavior, and the media enables it all.
The result is the public now thinks this is the new normal. It is not normal. It is dangerous.
Peter Fonda sent out a series of tweets this week, calling for Barron Trump to be ripped from his mother and put in a cage with pedophiles, then he went after Sarah Sanders and Kirstjen Nielsen tweeting that Sanders’ kids should be taken from her and Nielsen should be put in a cage, stripped naked, and whipped publicly with it filmed for posterity.
Paging #MeToo.
Just curious, if Peter Fonda walked into The Red Hen would he be asked to leave because his tweets don’t meet the “certain standards” they have to uphold as a restaurant? Asking for a friend.
By the owner’s flawed logic and approach to business management, anyone who isn’t a socialist shouldn't serve Bernie Sanders because socialism has ruined many countries and cost countless lives. Yet, if I owned a restaurant I’d gladly serve Senator Sanders and a table full of his socialist friends because I’m running a business, as countless other businesses who don’t subscribe to socialism have done.
That’s right, I’d serve a bunch of socialists because I’m a capitalist.
Both The Red Hen’s owner and many others are pointing to the recent Supreme Court decision that ruled Masterpiece Cakeshop did not have to make an off-the-menu cake for a gay wedding to justify kicking Sanders out of the restaurant. However, there is no comparison. For that logic to work Sanders would’ve had to order food that wasn’t on the menu and then use the government to try and force them to make what she wanted.
Once upon a time, it used to be if any high ranking official — from any administration, Democrat or Republican — came into your restaurant not only would you serve them, but you’d publicize it to promote your business. Gone are those days.
Today, many are just looking to put politically correct points on the board, and prefer to seek out publicity for their business through divisive political statements.
And our media – most of whom make no secret of the fact they are ultra-liberal – is giving them a platform to do so, not through the lens of journalism and facts, but rather by minimizing those who don’t think the way they do.
Accustomed to always being the adult in the room, Sanders left The Red Hen without a scene, and later tweeted “Last night I was told by the owner of Red Hen in Lexington, VA to leave because I work for @POTUS and I politely left. Her actions say far more about her than about me. I always do my best to treat people, including those I disagree with, respectfully and will continue to do so.”
You won’t see Sanders kicking anyone out of the briefing room to uphold certain standards, though many would call her justified if she did. And you won’t find her on Twitter calling anyone four letter words, or calling for the public beating of another human.
Those who claim to represent “certain standards”- including tolerance and inclusiveness - should stand up and take notice. This is what it looks like.
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