You’ve heard the liberal hysteria over the audacity of a
private company’s head declaring that he favors traditional, not same sex,
marriage. There are now calls for the Chick-fil-A’s
head to be placed on the proverbial chopping block. Mayors of San Francisco, Chicago and Boston,
for instance, have pulled the welcome mat for the fast food company,
threatening to deny business permits.
How interesting – and telling. Such liberals (and there have been some
notable exceptions) will brook no disagreement with their approval of
homosexual marriage which even President Obama did not support until his recent
(political?) conversion. Because,
apparently, the issue is now settled in such minds, no disagreement can be
tolerated. Rather it must be punished.
What arrogance!
On one level, the reaction from the left has been
silly. Governmental attempts to hinder a
private company from conducting business based on social views of its leaders
is blatantly illegal. Because that fact
is so obvious, one can confidently say that the proponents of this action weren’t
serious. They were merely trying to
curry political favor with gay and lesbian constituents.
Yet, on another level, such conduct is upsetting. Is it conceivable that twenty years ago, political
leaders of any persuasion would have had the nerve to attack a business whose
leader expressed a view on a controversial subject? Respect for differing views ought to be a
given in American society.
Of course, no political persuasion has a monopoly on
intolerance or self-righteousness. But I
do think that experience tells one that its practitioners are more often found on
the left.
I have no problem with people boycotting businesses that
use profits to support ideas they don’t like.
And Chick-fil-A does support traditional marriage campaigns. But there’s a difference between citizens
boycotting a product and governments (local, state or federal) threatening
private businesses because of the owner’s beliefs.
Can anyone imagine a conservative mayor trying to bar –
or discourage -- Starbucks from opening
a shop within city limits because its CEO Howard Schultz supports gay marriage?
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