Leftists Plan to Boycott Symphony with Dennis Prager as Guest Conductor

The American left has very definite ideas about where the United States should be. I get that. I also get that they don’t agree with people like me on a great deal. It’s fine because, well, I don’t agree with them either. Disagreement doesn’t make them bad people, necessarily. It may make them naive, wrong, or any number of things…though the same could be said about all of my positions as well.

You know what does make someone a bad person? Threatening a boycott of a musical concert that has nothing at all to do with politics because the freaking guest conductor thinks the wrong freaking things.

From The Federalist:

That gets me back to music. Recently, conservative public intellectual Dennis Prager was invited to guest-conduct the Santa Monica Symphony Orchestra. Dennis is a lifelong lover of classical music, and while an amateur, has conducted various symphonies throughout his life, including the august Los Angeles Philharmonic. His favorite composer is the great Franz Joseph Haydn, whose 51st Symphony he will conduct on August 16 at the world-famous Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Unless, of course, the leftists get their way. A campaign including the mayor of Santa Monica, some of its city council members, and various LA-area professors aims to boycott the concert. Why? Because he is “a right-wing radio host who promotes horribly bigoted positions.” According to them, having Dennis conduct will “normalize bigotry in our community.”

Anyone Who Disagrees With Us Is a Bigot

This begs the question: how? Leaving aside the debate over what constitutes “bigotry” and whether Dennis is a “bigot” (which he most certainly is not), how exactly will this “normalize” anything other than the performance of good music? There is absolutely nothing political about the event.

[…]

This is all the more incredible given how Dennis conducts himself personally and professionally. Dennis—a religious Jew and political conservative—has conducted thousands of interviews with those who disagree with him. Atheists, Muslims, Jews, gays, straights, Christians, Democrats, Republicans, you name it. Dennis not only hosts them, but gives them a platform to articulate what they believe to millions of people. Unlike most commentators, he actually lets them speak! He has his views, but he is entirely fine with you having yours.

So why is someone like Prager being labeled a bigot? Oh, that’s simple. Everything the left disagrees with is bigotry.

As pointed out, this concert has nothing to do with politics. It’s simply a concert of classical music, something that many people on both sides of the political aisle enjoy equally. This should be an opportunity for both sides to take a step back and remember that we may disagree on a great many things, but there are many things we share a love for, things we can use as common ground to heal the rifts within our country.

But, of course, that’s not possible. It’s not possible because a bunch of spoiled children refuse to let people they don’t like do things. They don’t want us to talk, they don’t want us to guest conduct concerts, nothing.

Meanwhile, they still call us the hateful ones.