Refusing business is a way to take a stand, unless you’re a conservative, says the Left. Timothy P. Carney writes:
Recent months have given us an endless stream of companies refusing to take part in business arrangements that executives found morally wrong.
This week Google took a stand for businesses who don’t want to participate in practices the executives find immoral. The company will discriminate against bail bond companies on its ad platforms, Google announced, to the plaudits of civil rights attorneys. “No one should be incarcerated simply because they can’t afford not to be,” former federal civil rights prosecutor Vanita Gupta declared. “I applaud @Google for taking the unprecedented step today of banning ads for bail bonds from its platforms.”
There was The Happiest Hour, the Irish pub that barred patrons who dared don “Make America Great Again” hats. A Manhattan judge ruled, properly, that such discrimination was within the rights of bar owner.
If you followed closely the decline and fall of leading Obama fundraiser and corporate lobbyist Tony Podesta, you know his more progressive staff argued that the Podesta Group should deny service to organizations whose agendas bugged their conscience, such as cigarette and gun companies. Should that be legal?
Bank of America announced this year it wouldn’t bake the proverbial cake for gunmakers. The First National Bank of Omaha wouldn’t cater the proverbial wedding of the National Rifle Association and its customers. Delta Airlines followed suit.
The Dallas Observer celebrated a bartender who kicked out customers for being neo-Nazis. A left-wing coffee-shop owner wouldn’t tolerate customers using her business for a pro-life meeting.
Chicago florists demand their customers pledge political allegiance before serving them.
After Trump won, progressive champion attorney Lisa Bloomargued that the Rockettes should not be compelled to perform for his inauguration. “No artist should be forced upon threat of firing to perform for the most racist, misogynist prez in our lifetime.”
[Timothy P. Carney, “Google Won’t Bake the Cake, Which Is Fine,” Washington Examiner, May 9]
