OPINION:
Vince Vaughn, Hollywood actor, dared to chat it up with President Donald Trump at the national championship game in New Orleans. And now the left is going nuts.
Call it freedom, Democrat style. Another word for it? Suffocating. Stifling, even.
It’s the left’s particular brand of free speech that goes, You can talk to whomever you like and say whatever you want — so long as it’s acceptable to us.
And Trump just doesn’t make the cut.
“I’m very sorry to have to share this video with you,” wrote a former Deadspin worker, Timothy Burke, on Twitter above a video he shot of Vaughn next to Melania Trump, talking to the president, Fox News reported. “All of it, every part of it.”
Vaughn and Trump even — gasp! — shook hands.
Now social media wants Vaughn “canceled.”
One Twitter poster wrote: “Ladies & gentlemen, I regret to inform you Vince Vaughn is CANCELED.”
Another posted, “Sad. Vince Vaughn is one of my favorites. I always knew he was Republican but this, so gross. I don’t need a Wedding Crashers sequel anymore.”
What would the left prefer — for Vaughn to have reached across first lady and slapped the face of the president?
No doubt, had Vaughn done that, he would’ve, post-game, been hailed a hero by the left. He would’ve been sitting in a jail cell, awaiting federal prosecution for attacking a president of the United States — but he would’ve had his face splattered all over social media with big thumbs-up memes, while leftists the world over called for mass purchases of his movies.
It’s interesting that Democrats claim to be the party of tolerance and diversity, but at the same time, a 30-second chat between a Hollywood actor and a Republican president could spark such vitriol.
The left could take a memo from the relationship between Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia. These two Supreme Court justices were as far apart on the ideological scale as humanly possible — yet they maintained a dear friendship that lasted until Scalia’s death.
That’s the greatness of America, right there: Out of many, one.
If only the left could stop its partisan hack job hysterics and see that civil discourse is not a sign of weakness, but good manners, class and yes, even strength.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE.
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