June 25, 2018
For those of us wondering who will have the resolve to resist fascism as it steamrolls over our democracy, we need look no further than the lopsided reactions to two events that occurred over the weekend. On Friday night, the owner of Lexington, Virginia restaurant, The Red Hen, asked White House spokeswoman and professional liar, Sarah Sanders, to leave the restaurant. The owner explained that she made the decision out of respect for her staff, many of whom are gay and bristled at the idea of serving an agent of a cruelly homophobic and racist administration. Never one to be constrained by the facts, Sanders tweeted from her government account, “I always do my best to treat people, including those I disagree with, respectfully and will continue to do so,” (@PressSec; 10:53 a.m. 6/23/18, Twitter). It’s not clear how Sanders squares that statement with her support for the right of businesses to refuse service to LGBT patrons on religious grounds, but no matter. This was all it took for concern trolling admonishment to erupt from pundits and consultants across the political spectrum. Everyone from Ari Fleischer to Jonathan Alter to David Axelrod condemned the Red Hen and those of us supporting their decision, although some, like Jessica Valenti, pointed out what should have been obvious — that shunning people for moral transgressions is NOT equivalent to discrimination against classes of people based on their immutable characteristics.
While countless characters were wasted discussing the constricted dining choices of a frumpy flack, precious little has been spent raising the alarm over Trump’s tweets yesterday advocating the wholesale abandonment of due process. Trump once again echoed genocidal propaganda, characterizing the immigrants seeking asylum or refuge as “invaders” not entitled to procedural protections (Source: “Trump advocates depriving undocumented immigrants of due process rights,” by Philip Rucker and Dave Weigel, The Washington Post, 6/24/18).
It is no surprise that Trump is eager to do away with due process. He has been frighteningly consistent and not shy in showing his flagrant contempt for the Constitution. One would expect that condemnation would be swift and definitive. The Supreme Court has made it clear that undocumented immigrants are entitled to due process and equal protection under the law (Plyler v. Doe, 457 U.S. 202 (1982)). The fact that the D.C. chattering class is spilling far more ink on Sarah Sanders being kicked out of an eatery than on a President’s open call for the suspension of a bedrock Constitutional right is telling.
Clearly, they identify more with Sanders than with the anguished parents being separated from their children. Clearly, they are sanguine that no one will stop them en route to their New England summer vacations and demand their papers. They know that they will not be wrongfully imprisoned for more than three years on the suspicion that they are an undocumented immigrant. They reduce human rights abuses to “policy disagreements” and are being deliberately obtuse in conflating the willingness to pursue programs that cruelly target the most marginalized among us with the immutable characteristics covered by our anti-discrimination laws. Each of us has a choice to make: Will we privilege civility over morality, accommodating monstrous behavior in order to avoid personal discomfort, or will we stand up for the principles of our shared humanity, our Constitution and the Rule of Law? Those pleading with us to be polite have made their choice. We will have to make ours.
#Familiesbelongtogether
#VOTE