When I was a tot, it was pretty common to see a sign at stores and restaurants that said something like
WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO REFUSE SERVICE TO ANYONE
(Sometimes it added FOR ANY REASON, in case you missed the point.)
You don’t see those signs so much anymore. Really, this ship has been in the process of sailing for some time. Many of us think it’s fine to compel bakeries to make gay wedding cakes and what-not.
So what to make of this weekend’s kerfuffle over White House press secretary Sarah Sanders being asked to leave a Virginia restaurant because of her association with the Trump administration?
I am of two minds on this. The libertarian in me believes that with few exceptions, it’s wrong to legally force a merchant to do business, so I don’t have an issue with Sanders being asked to leave a restaurant (or a bakery refusing to make a wedding cake for a gay couple, for that matter). I think these decisions are properly market forces, and nothing more.
But I’m also sick to death of absolutely everything being politicized—not to mention that this sort of ideological “purity” in business is quite impossible. Do you own any mutual funds? Well, you’re already done, Skippy. There’s no way you’re not “supporting” something you don’t want to be in there, so just calm your hysterical shrieking about Chick-fil-A and whatever else too.
You don’t have to be Professor Positive blowing sunshine up everyone’s butt, but you also don’t have to make a ceaseless quest for division one of the primary ways you interface with the world. Far too many of us have decided that such is acceptable, and even noble. Quoting the great David French:
Red Hen has a right to refuse service.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders has a right to complain.
Potential customers have a right to make their own decisions.
I have a right to try to persuade people to stop politicizing everything.
Freedom is easy to figure out-hard to execute.
Amen.
Have a good week.
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