ANALYSIS/OPINION:
Is there any better way to protest against today’s Democratic Party than participating in private enterprise? Only if it involves free exercise of religion, the one thing that they hate more than business.
In defiance of crony capitalism, real capitalism stood up for itself. Mayor Thomas M. Menino of Boston, the city once known as the Cradle of Liberty, the city of the original tea party, said that he would deny business permits to Chick-fil-A chains attempting to bring their business to the city because of the opinions of their owner, Dan Cathy.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, former chief of staff to then-anti-gay-marriage President Barack Hussein Obama, also said that he would ensure Mr. Cathy would have a difficult time bringing his product to Chicago, because Mr. Cathy’s values are “not Chicago values.”
So what’s happened here is that someone is being denied the ability to do business for beliefs completely unrelated to their business.
Speaking of Chicago values, I wonder if Mayor Emanuel will do anything about Jeremiah Wright’s decades of preaching against race-mixing. Are those Chicago values?
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee then called for “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day” on Wednesday, the same day as the Health and Human Services abortifacient mandate kicked in.
The response was overwhelming. According to conservative activist Lisa De Pasquale, Chick-fil-A owners were expecting an increase of 15 percent to 20 percent in sales. Instead, sales doubled.
This is a great moment for those of us who want to see business unshackled from the oppression of this government. Incidentally, it’s a reminder that money can be used as speech, as the Supreme Court has affirmed so many times over the past century.
Of course, Democrats predictably impugned our motivates, and told us what our real motives were, as if we didn’t know why we were participating. Even less surprising is that this line of attack came primarily from Hollywood. Roseanne Barr wished that Chick-fil-A customers got cancer. Actor Wil Wheaton tweeted “I can’t stop laughing at the bigots who celebrated their solidarity with each other by gorging themselves on [bad] fast food. Bravo, jerks.” He added, “Sigh. This has nothing to do with free speech, and everything to do with denying basic human rights to our fellow humans.”
Let’s examine this. Did Chick-fil-A refuse to hire homosexuals? Do they refuse to serve homosexuals? What “basic human rights” are they denying fellow humans by simply having a philosophical opinion about what marriage is and ought to be?
Chick-fil-A, those evil bigots, responded by bringing free water to the protesters. Now that is class, loving those who curse you.
People have been remarking at how strange it is that people should express their support for free speech by purchasing fast food. On the contrary, it is strange, though unsurprising, that Democrats should try to restrict free speech, by outlawing the fast food companies they don’t like.
The Democrats, with decades of acquiescence and even assistance of Republicans, have done, and are continuing to do, everything that they can to keep the market from being a real market. They are distorting it in every way possible: They are incentivizing bad ideas with subsidies as well as tax breaks; they are punishing good ideas with heavy taxes. They are trying to remake the market in their own image, which is something like remaking nature in our own: not going to end pretty.
The entire Democratic program is to insulate people from reality: the government will take care of your health insurance, your food, your housing, your cellphones, your child. You can behave as you wish: There are no consequences. The government will pay for your abortion if you’re promiscuous; it will give you a grant if you can’t give the market anything anybody wants; it will take down the rich if you feel bad about yourself. Papa Government is going to make everything okay.
It’s no surprise then, when an outright lie becomes a plank on the party platform: namely, that a gay marriage is equal to a heterosexual marriage.
Even Jon Stewart, an acknowledged socialist, begrudgingly accepted that Mayor Emanuel and Mayor Menino had acted completely out of line with the constitution. When Mr. Stewart sides against the liberals, you know that they’ve gone way too far.
• Armstrong Williams, author of the 2010 book, “Reawakening Virtues,” is on Sirius Power 128, 7-8 p.m. and 4-5 a.m., Monday through Friday. Become a fan on Facebook- facebook.com/arightside, and follow him on Twitter attwitter.com/arightside. Read his content on RightSideWire.com.
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