‘Chick-fil-A, and the Easy Slide into Fascism’
As Frank Burns once said on TV’s M*A*S*H, individuality is fine as long as we all do it together. At The Week, Ed Morrissey explores “Rahm Emanuel, Chick-fil-A, and the easy slide into fascism:”
Emanuel later backed down, but not one of the local aldermen, who still demanded a pledge from Cathy to quit associating with groups that oppose gay marriage as a prerequisite for a business permit. A councilman in New York made a similar threat. San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee kept his attack on freedom of thought to Twitter, noting that the closest Chick-fil-A outlet was 40 miles away — and that the company shouldn’t try to get any closer.
It fell to a long-time nanny-state politician to offer some common sense on what freedom means. Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York City, took time off between regulating soft-drink serving sizes and locking up baby formula to force more new mothers to breastfeed in order to set Menino and Emanuel straight. Bloomberg scolded his fellow mayors during his regular radio show, saying that it’s inappropriate for governments “to look at somebody’s political views and decide whether or not they can live in the city, or operate a business in the city, or work for somebody in the city.”
I’ll say. There is nothing wrong with boycotts by consumers, though they often tend to be ineffective. Still though, boycotts are perhaps the purest form of free-market political protests — entirely voluntary, with commensurate impact to the issue at hand on the business in question. But when governments demand political loyalty as a requirement to operate a business or live in a city, that has more in common with the 20th-century regimes that required business owners to have party cards and excluded anyone not considered loyal to the entrenched ruling class.
Meanwhile, Sheppard Smith of Fox News, tacitly attacking broadcasting colleague Mike Hukabee, who inspired August 1st as “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day,” dubs it a “national day of intolerance” — and for some, that certainly was the case:
After witnessing a man using a minimum wage drive-through worker as a prop in his video rant, Weekly Standard contributor Sonny Bunch writes in response:
So look: I get that this Chick-fil-A thing has inflamed passions on both sides. Liberals think this is a several rights issue about gay marriage; conservatives think it’s a civil rights issue about freedom of speech and the government using its power to stifle politically unacceptable thoughts. But certainly we can all agree that YouTube user Amsmith77Amsmith—if that even is his real name!—is King Douche, right?
Indeed — and it’s good in these times of turmoil to see someone volunteering to bring the country together to agree.
Related: “Reporter bashes Chick-fil-A customers while covering the story.”
More: “Rick Warren: Chick-fil-A’s owner told me they set a new world record in sales today.”
Update: “CBS Atlanta: We’re Not Covering Appreciation, Just Protests.” Meanwhile, regarding lower budget mobile video shoots, Amsmith77Amsmith pulled his video — wonder why? — fortunately, we had already downloaded a copy for our archives, and Jim Treacher has already helpfully reposted it for him, which we’ve substituted for the original video above.
People motivated enough to stand in line or wait in their cars 30-60 minutes for a chicken sandwich and waffle fries probably are motivated enough to vote in the Nov. 6 election, and not for the guy who agreed with the Cathys on gay marriage four months ago. It would be interesting to see the day’s take for the Chick-fil-As in swing states today.
As for Shep, if he wants to be the kinder, gentler version of Keith Olbermann (i.e. — tossing off a remark like today’s with no one on the other side around to reply) that’s his choice. But if he’s going to start going full MSNBC on the air against Fox’s core viewing audience (and some of it’s other hosts), he needs to ask Roger Ailes to take him off the 7 p.m. Eastern main news roundup and just leave him with a news/opinion hybrid show in the afternoon, like Megyn Kelly. And he shouldn’t be shocked if a Sheppard Smith who starts flinging his attacks around like a MSNBC or CNN host ends up with MSNBC or CNN-like ratings, and ends up following the career path of David Shuster.
I have several observations…
First, I’m tired of the fascist and Nazi accusations. I get that refusing to allow a business in a particular city because of the political views of the owners is probably unconstitutional, and certainly obnoxious, but it’s hardly rigging an election or jailing political opposition. Both Emmanuel and Menino have had to back down from their original statements, and my guess is that the other individuals will wind up being told that their antics are unacceptable. Fascism is when they get away with it, universally, not when a few goofballs pander to their constituencies momentarily before having things explained to them.
Second, I’m wondering what all the fuss is about. I’m not a big fan of chicken sandwiches…I’ve had a Chick-Fil-A, and I didn’t particularly care for it. I also was somewhat annoyed that they’re not open on Sunday. I get that the ownership is religious and doesn’t want to be open on the day of rest, but not everyone observes that on the same day, and some of us like to go out on the day of rest and have a bite to eat. The rest of the retail world has figured this out, and the staffs at restaurants and elsewhere conform to it: you don’t make Jews work on Fridays, 7DA people get Saturday off, and religious Christians get Sunday. How hard can this be?
Third, if you’re going to serve me a dried–I mean fried–chicken sandwich on a bun, it had better be slathered in mayonnaise. Without it, the texture resembles shoe leather. Not eating there on a bet.
Mayonnaise or light mayo are the side options at Chick-fil-A. My complaint is they put pickle slices on their sandwiches. That truly is the work of Satan.
(Meanwhile, on the tempest-in-a-teapot aspect of the kerfuffle, you’ve got to admit that Rahm lecturing the Cathys about “Chicago values” while welcoming in noted gay marriage opponent Louis Farakhan and his Nation of Islam leaders to patrol the city’s streets because of all those shootings, stabbings and murders is worthy of a dollop of outrage, isn’t it?)
“Fascism is when they get away with it, universally, not when a few goofballs pander to their constituencies momentarily before having things explained to them.”
This qualifies as one of the most idiotic statements that I have read. So, when he was sitting on his ass in jail writing Mein Kampf, Hitler was not a Fascist? Well, that is certainly a new twist on history and political science.
Harry Reid has a confidential source, who told him that Shep “plays for the other team.” I don’t know if it’s true or not; I just thought I’d put it out there.
Shepard Smith is openly gay. Move along folks, nothing to see here….
There is nothing like a successful effort on the part of the right to demonstrate exactly how the left works.
Here’s another one for you Ed:
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/08/02/4684300/hundreds-of-gay-marriage-foes.html
Notes:
1. Hundreds? I was at the Roseville store mentioned in the article. They sold their daily sales quota by 11:00 am. They had an average wait time of over 45 minutes from 10:00 to 8:30 that evening. The drive thru line was over a mile long. Hundreds? Foes?
I would not call it fascism. More like “Red Monarchy” or Aristocratic rule throwing over the last vestiges of a Republic. That’s whats got people angry, as a both decadent, and powerful hereditary ruling class seeks to control everything, sparked a pure battle for dominance and power.
The left, the hereditary ruling class, wants to simply erase the people, elect a new one, and impose its own decadent, and debauched values onto others in a show of force and pure dominance.
Not fascism, something far older. Far more … feudal.
Should Republican mayors not “ban” hard left-owned companies from their jurisdictions, tit-for-tat style. Here are a few:
Taco Bell
Progressive Insurance
Stryker
Salesforce.com
I’m sure there are many others.
Give that young lady a raise!
What an arse, embarrassing that lady like that.