The Huckabee Sanders scam, part two

A couple of days ago, I wrote an article, entitled The Sarah Huckabee Sanders Scam (Pravda.Report, June 24, 2018) that discussed the incident where the chief propagandist for America's wannabe dictator was asked to leave a small restaurant in Virginia.  Much has happened since that time, so I thought I would update readers.

1.     Sanders's father Mike Huckabee called the restaurant's actions "bigotry," and described their menu items as "Hate Plates" and "small plates for small minds."

Yet this is the same Mike Huckabee who, a short while earlier, denounced Nancy Pelosi's criticism of separating immigrant children from their parents by tweeting that Pelosi's new "campaign committee" was comprised of Hispanic gang members.  Not only was this tweet condemned as racist, it also ignored the fact that many Hispanic people seeking to immigrate to America are doing so to escape rampant gang violence in their home countries.

And it should not be forgotten that Huckabee was also a vocal proponent of Kim Davis's refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, and even proclaimed that Davis only had to obey laws that she believed were "right."  Now his daughter is quoting the Bible to rationalize why even laws many believe are cruel and unjust, like separating immigrant children from their parents and putting them in cages, must still be obeyed.

2.     Since the Huckabee Sanders incident, or in close proximity to it, the following has also occurred:

a.     A woman threatened to call police on an eight-year-old African-American girl for selling bottled water without a permit;

b.     The United States Supreme Court continued to endorse businesses that discriminate against gays and lesbians by declining to hear a case involving a florist who refused to serve a same-sex couple;

c.      This same court, fortifying its own politicization and corruption, continued to undermine democracy by rubber-stamping racist political gerrymandering;

d.     A transgender woman was kicked out of a restaurant in Washington D.C.;

e.      A pharmacist in Arizona, on alleged "religious" grounds, refused to fill a miscarriage prescription for a customer.

And there is absolutely no doubt that all these actions would be heartily endorsed by Huckabee Sanders, her father, and Donald J. Trump.

3.     And, speaking of Trump, he naturally wasn't going to let the restaurant incident go "untweeted."  In one of his typical puerile rants, he denounced the cleanliness of the restaurant's canopies and criticized its "paint job," stating that "if a restaurant is dirty on the outside, it is dirty on the inside."

If this was the case, it would seem that Huckabee Sanders, instead of complaining, should have been grateful to be booted from an establishment that was allegedly so filthy.  The facts, however, (these are the things that Trump and his supporters so blissfully ignore) state the opposite:  According to an article on the WSCOTV website, the restaurant's recent health inspection "includes no records of violations."  The inspectors even complimented the restaurant for "good food/unit temperatures" and the cleanliness of the staff.

Contrast this with Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort and club.  A recent article in Newsweek revealed that, in January 2017, the resort's two main kitchens had incurred "four basic [health] violations, three intermediate violations, and three high priority violations," including having sushi that was not treated for parasites; in November 2017, these kitchens were "hit with 15 health code violations"; and, in January 2018, the club was cited for "two high priority violations."

4.     Finally, in keeping with his policy of diversion (which I discussed more fully in the article mentioned above), Trump could take an inordinate amount of time criticizing a small restaurant, yet he seemed undisturbed by the news that motorcycle manufacturer Harley Davidson was shifting more production jobs overseas due to his tariffs.

But hey, what's the loss of American jobs when there are dirty canopies to attack.

Several media outlets and politicians, many of whom have been largely critical of Trump, have now taken great pains to vilify the restaurant that refused to serve Huckabee Sanders.  Democrat Elijah Cummings, for example, stated that Sanders should have been served.

I completely understand that for African-American politicians like Cummings, the denial of service in public accommodations conjures up images of people being refused simply because of their race.  I also understand the cliché that "You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar."

But this ignores another axiom verified by the pages of history:  You can never appease a fascist, so never attempt to do so.

One fundamental tactic of fascism is to create laws, rules, and ethics that your opponents must obey, but your followers can ignore.  This article provides numerous examples of that very reality.

The current demands for "civility" and "respect" are certainly worthy ideals if practiced across the political spectrum.  But Trump and Huckabee's hypocritical, fatuous tweets, and Huckabee Sanders's own rudeness and mendacity, clearly demonstrate they have no desire to reciprocate the "civility" and "respect" they expect their critics to adhere to.

In fact, the real reason fascists demand "civil" and "respectful" discourse from their opponents is so they can paint them as weak and lacking in the capacity to passionately defend their principles.  Hitler, for example, didn't take Neville Chamberlain's appeasement as a show of respect; he took it as an invitation to seize more and more territory.

While there is virtually no chance that the denial of service to a soulless person like Huckabee Sanders will cause her, or those of her ilk, to develop any empathy for people who are denied service, or unjustly targeted, because of their race or sexual orientation, at least she was treated the way she expected others to be treated.

David R. Hoffman, Legal Editor of Pravda.Report