Playbook

As Knight follows Nike, Rs are aghast and outraged that some people didn't like what Mr Chick-Fil-A (how gay is a guy named Cathy?) said about gays.

Former Minnesota governor and top Romney surrogate Tim Pawlenty said he found statements made by public officials against Chick-Fil-A “chilling” and “jaw-dropping” at a roundtable with voters in Cary, North Carolina on Saturday,reports First Read. The chain has recently come under fire for president Dan Cathy’s anti-gay marriage comments, including from the mayor of Boston who wants to keep the fast-food chain from coming to Boston.

“Now you have the police power of government intimidating and threatening people, being used to intimidate and threaten people, based on their free speech rights and their religious views,” Pawlenty said in response to a question about the controversy. “I mean it’s chilling. I mean it’s stunning, it is jaw-dropping. And so I think strong people who see this need to stand up and say no we don’t do that in the United States.”

It's straight from the RWS™ Palinoid playbook: they claim the right to say whatever they want, no matter how hateful. And, indeed, as Americans, they have that right. But when people respond in the negative, well, that's violation of free speech. And if the hate-speaker happens to be the CEO of a business, wading into political controversy dragging his religion behind him, evidently when people suggest that business is no longer welcome*, well, that's a violation, too. We've seen it over and over again.

Of course, it's not surprising: the right wing claims sole ownership of the love of democracy and capitalism; but their view of ownership evidently includes the exclusive right to exercise it.

What a strange group are they.

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* It's a lie within a lie, naturally. The mayor of Boston (and SF, and Chicago) never said he would or could block them from coming to town. He said he hoped they wouldn't come. And what, exactly, is wrong with that? Cathy shoots off his mouth, mayors do the same. Free speech. I'll have to reread the Constitution, because I missed where it says free speech only flows from right to left.