Republican Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders was kicked out of another restaurant this week. Years ago, I wrote about how Sanders, then the Trump White House spokesperson, was told to leave the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Virginia. Now, the Croissanterie Restaurant in Little Rock, Arkansas, has told the governor to leave because employees said they felt uncomfortable having her in the restaurant. One person yelled at her and flipped her off as she left with her friends and security.
Sanders went to the restaurant with three other moms for a quick meal. She recounted how she and the other moms were then told to leave: “Last week I was having lunch with two other moms at a restaurant when the owner approached a member of the State Police Executive Protection Detail and said my presence made their employees feel threatened and told us to leave.”
She added: “Arkansans are known for their warm hospitality, and while that restaurant certainly doesn’t meet that standard, my administration will continue to focus on lifting Arkansans up, not tearing others down with discrimination and hate.”
Sanders had already started to eat when the restaurant’s owner approached a member of the security detail and requested that the governor leave.
The Croissanterie released a lengthy statement and admitted that they told the governor and her party to leave. While offering a hand-ringing explanation about being “surprised and uncertain how best to respond,” it admitted that it “ultimately made the decision” to “support our employees and guests who expressed they were uncomfortable.”
It added, “We regret being placed in this position and having to make a difficult decision. However, we stand by our choice to support our employees and guests.”
The restaurant is founded and owned by Jill McDonald, executive chef, and Wendy Schay, pastry chef.
We have seen various restaurants refusing to serve Trump supporters, conservatives, and even those deemed allies. Democratic members of Congress have defended such actions and even encouraged liberals to disrupt meals of conservatives.
Liberals went to social media to celebrate the move by the restaurant. One posting from an employee declared:
“Good Morning! Sarah Huckabee Sanders no amount of evil you send our way can ever take our smiles away!!! I’m proud af to work here! I’m proud af to be gay and I’m proud af to be an Arkansan. My voice matters. Try again.”
There have been virtually no condemnations from leading Democrats, who either fear or support such mob actions.
In my book, The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage,” and my new book, Rage and the Republic, I discuss what I called this “age of rage.”
Rage is a curious emotion. It is the ultimate release. It allows you to do things and say things that you would not otherwise do or say. That is why it is addictive and contagious. What people will not admit is that they like it. It allows them to hate completely; to dispense with notions of decency or civility.
This restaurant yielded to hate and intolerance to appease not only its employees but the radical left.
This action occurs the same week as a poll showing that a majority of Americans now view those with opposing views as “morally bad.”
The rage addiction is obvious in these postings, as shown most recently by James Carville.
Democratic leaders believe that they can fuel this rage addiction and lead the mob to victory in the midterm elections. The cost is also to fuel the product of rage, including political violence.
The most recent targeting of Sanders presents a moral choice for the left. If you rationalize this action or continue to patronize restaurants like the Croissanterie Restaurant, you have made a choice. You have embraced the intolerance and hatred sweeping over this nation.
For all of their superficial expressions of reluctance, Jill McDonald and Wendy Schay chose hate over tolerance. While claiming to be “uncertain how best to respond,” the answer was obvious for anyone with a sense of decency: you serve everyone regardless of your political differences. Food, like music, allows people to come together; share common experiences and environments.
I truly believe that this age of rage will end as prior such ages ended. Eventually, the rage burns off and people recognize that their hatred had twisted them into grotesque figures. To reach that point, however, we must learn to speak to each other again and tolerate those who disagree with us. To put it simply, we have to break bread with one another and consider what we have in common.
Jill McDonald and Wendy Schay appear to want to cater to the rage and make their food exclusively available to those with whom they and their employees agree politically. We will have to see if that is a winning business strategy, but most of us have little appetite for their type of culinary-based hate.
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.”
Reminder Democrats are fascist by nature…they were the RACISTS of the 50’s and 60’s…now they just HATE America
I would organize a protest with signs outside of the place stating that the Governor was kicked out of that restaurant because the kitchen staff disagreed with her policies. See how much business they get.
Time for a MAGA HAT-IN…book the place solid! Hour after HOUR!
Ask for water only…
but Democrats are FINE with Illegals who are Murderers, Rapists, criminals. YEP that is a FACT!
Oh goody. These idiots still think being Republicans is anti gay. These morons vote. All emotion.
END State and Federal Aid to Little Rock, Arkansas
Defund and Destroy the Fascist Democrats
I seriously doubt that would please Governor Huckabee. Arkansas is a very red state. I doubt the owners did their business any favor by shunning a very popular governor. The Dem Party has gone around the bend with its insanity and hatred. I look forward to its demise.
being NICE to German Fascist in 1930’s…got the WORLD What? The Left Wing are set on DESTROYING Western Society!
That isn’t debatable!
you can fight FASCIST Democrats NOW…or LATER. Fighting German Fascists LATER was HARD!
Time to END the funding of Democrat Fascists…END Federal Aid to cities, states, non-profits and colleges
Outlaw Public Unions the political army of the Democrats
FYI EVERY SINGLE Democrat VOTER HATES AMERICA! Pro illegals, crime, drugs, debt, CORRUPTION! EVERYONE OF THEM! STOP being nice to ANY OF THEM!
The Governor and her friends should have gone to the Cheesecake Factory. Better food and far more classy an outfit. You never know about croissants. Cheesecake, Tarts, or bagels are far better. Croissants just turn into crumbs and nothing.
I’ll bet you never dined at the Croissanterie Restaurant, yet you think a corp. chain offers better mass baked pre-baked microwave re-heated junk?
I guess politics trumps good taste eh?
It remains to be seen what consequences, if any, there might be for the proprietor and the establishment going forward, given the decision chosen. Presently, the employees have made it known to their employer, who is really in charge there.
Consequences? Like a law suit? Internet reaction? Well, Turley sure likes to push crowd into a full blast response here. Even gave a link.
So my conservatives friends here, lets all go on the attack and destroy that business, pummel them, make them cry. Teach them a lesson that all liberals will never forget.
To show everyone we’re not all bad, we’ll setup a gofundme page to help them out with the revenue loss and legal costs.
Gotta love this country eh? Conservatives are such nice people.
Look what you liberals did to the baker in CO, as they continue to sue the guy for NOT CREATING SOMETHING JUST FOR THEM, and the Bakery next to the radical college in Gibson’s Bakery vs Oberlin?
In the left’s world view they can make you actually create something and they can also deny you basic service.
In CO? So what? As a raging crazy conservatives , you’d do the same to a liberals, even as you and your ilk are doing here and now.
too stupid! I have not heard one story, one, saying a liberal was kicked out of a restaurant or asked to leave a business.
So what.
Name one time a conservative kicked out a liberal from their business.
well you’re the blog nazi here, sure you have complied all the disgusting violations of conservatives being mistreated in liberal restaurants across the USA.
HullBobby pointed out for you to name a time a conservative kicked out a liberal from their business and you had to resort to calling him a “nazi.”
That is a result of you losing the argument.
Once again, reading comprehension fails you. As with OLLY and his use of the word “Ghost,” Trapper John used the word “consequences” implying customers just would no longer go to the restaurant, buy any of their products, use any of their services.
Who is filing a law suit? Does not appear to be the governor. She has too much class for that.
As for your rant of “lets all go on the attack and destroy that business, pummel them, make them cry. Teach them a lesson that all liberals will never forget.”
Ah, no. That is not what we do. We just will not be their patrons. And if their business loss, by their own words and actions, leads to the closure of their restaurant, well, I guess they made a bad choice. There is no law that says I have to support a business that discriminates by political party.
Gotta love this country eh? Liberals are such nice people.
Upstate, given how the founding generation handled Loyalist shops, I suspect their ‘Yelp review’ would have involved boycotts, tar, and feathers. By comparison, our version of ghosting a restaurant is positively civilized.
OLLY,
Interesting observation; our annony is calling for us to “lets all go on the attack and destroy that business, pummel them, make them cry. Teach them a lesson that all liberals will never forget.”
Ah, no. That is not what we do. IIRC, HullBobby points out, we do not call for a news channel to be shutdown. We change the channel. In this case we are not going on the attack to destroy a business or pummel them. We simply will not be their patrons or spend our money on their products, or services.
They made a choice. That is their right. So we are making a choice. That is our right.
That is the civilized thing to do.
Exactly. Our anonymous friend wants torches and pitchforks. The civilized answer is what you describe: change the channel, don’t buy the product, don’t eat at the restaurant. They made their choice, we make ours. That is how adults in a free country are supposed to handle this.
This sort of crap in Little Rock? DC, I understand, but Little Rock, not exactly a progressive hotspot? The Croissanterie Restaurant may have some customer reduction issues.
If it were I, that restaurant would be getting an emergency health inspection! They’d have so many violations, that they would never forget who they treated like shit! Then, the building inspector would show up, to give them some more things to contemplate. Next, an audit by the state tax regulator, with more violations. AssHats like that, generally don’t t follow all the rules & regulations. Or laws for that matter. Then, the state Attorney General would file a civil rights violation against them. I’d make damn sure they never forget how they screwed up so badly!
Spot on
Emergency health inspection? Um… rather over the top eh?
I have to ask, what differentiates you from those liberals?
So pathetic. NEVER VOTE DEMOCRAT AGAIN.
This is how they would treat a conservative so I hope it happens.
Lot of hate and anger eh? You can fix that, a bullet to the head.
Hey ANO
Speaking of HATE. Read you’re own words.
Jezzzzzzz
Whoa! Showing your true colors?
Lot of hate and anger eh?
At least I can afford a bullet while you sit in mom’s basement collecting assistance and an allowance.
Democrats are the most fascist, least tolerant group of thugs in America. Shame on the cowards running the restaurant for giving in to hate. If they promote and reward fascism, intolerance and hate, they deserve to lose customers and shut down. I hope when that happens they and their employees learn a valuable lesson about tolerance.
Dems? Really? I doubt those two Lesbians are the actual cowards. They just gave into their impulse to insult several hetrosexual women. Lots of that going round.
IMHO Mr. Turley is over-optimistic that the age of rage will dissipate and evaporate. With the instant gratification and amplification of social media, ragers’ and all other users’ get a dopamine hit that is itself addictive, and one of the core features of any addiction is that it takes more and more of the addictive substance to gratify and satisfy the addict. I also see rage as a psychological cancer: left untreated, it grows. And grows.
Agree with anon. Rage is another of the many addictions that humans experience when their reason fails. Fish form schools out of fear and self preservation but when you peer outside the window, it’s really not that bad. Choose to tolerate, it shows personal strength. Whining just evinces your fear.
How cowardly. After they had payed and tipped a freedom fighter yells and makes an obscene gesture while they leave. Not the kind of people you want on your side in a fight.
Obscene gesture, that was allegedly a customer, part of the “community” Croissanterie Restaurant caters to.
The chicken (bleep) owners said it was a customer but I am betting it was a staff member.
All Republicans and sane people don’t eat at this restaurant. Wouldn’t spend a nickel there..
Wouldn’t? I doubt you even live in Little Rock AR. But you could go out of your way a diss them on yelp or google.
Of all the places that I won’t go to I won’t go there the most. I wish they were where I live so I could shun them.
I thought nothing leftists do can surprise me anymore but apparently I was too optimistic.
What matters first is the line between law and culture. The law sets a floor of rights that no majority, no proprietor, and no governor may cross; within that floor, private actors are free to reveal who they are and what they value, and the rest of us are free to respond in kind. In that sense, The Croissanterie is entitled to build a business model around the discomfort of its staff and patrons with a conservative governor. It may be ugly, it may be petty, and it may prove commercially suicidal, but it is squarely within the domain of cultural self‑sorting rather than state coercion.
It also does not enrage me that a business wants to sort its customers by politics. It simply gives me clarity whether this is a place that deserves my money or my presence. In a free society the proper remedy for a restaurant that proudly applies ideological litmus tests is not government retaliation, but public clarity and cultural response through criticism, patronage, and boycott. A governor is perfectly free to condemn the conduct and to urge supporters to spend their money elsewhere, but not to weaponize state power against disfavored speakers.
ok, but if the bakery refused to make a cake to celebrate the Governor’s anniversary to a man, holding that such a union did not comport with their deeply held beliefs about the social construct of marriage, would they be permitted? sanctioned? We are living in an age of rage, to be sure, but the bigger problem is that we are living in an age of the criminality (both technically and metaphorically) of ordinary conduct.
The bakery example is exactly why the law–culture line matters. My answer has to be the same both ways. If the law does not make either ‘conservative’ or ‘supports same‑sex marriage’ a protected class, then the state should not be in the business of punishing a baker who will not do a cake for a same‑sex wedding or a café that will not serve a conservative governor. Both are making choices that may be ugly or offensive, and it is up to the rest of us to answer with our feet and our wallets.
Where I agree with you is on the danger of turning ordinary conduct into a crime. Once every bad decision becomes a legal matter, we turn prosecutors and regulators into culture‑war soldiers. That is bad for the state and bad for us. The law should hold a clear, even floor of rights, and above that we argue, persuade, and choose whom we do business with.”
olly, you surprise us, didn’t know you baked i.e., baked up BS cake.
Olly,
I totally agree. There is no true freedom without the ability to discriminate or hold judgement.
Now that’s pretty deep stuff. can you elaborate please?
Seems kind of self evident.
And you’re the smart one here. right?
I have know idea of my relative intelligence. But I do know you can’t be free if you are not allowed to discriminate.
I think you just us insight into that question Jim.
Exactly Jim. Freedom includes the freedom to judge and to discriminate in our own choices, so long as we are not asking the state to crush someone else’s rights. That is what self‑government really looks like at ground level. It is not only about running the country. It is about governing ourselves, where we go, whom we support, and what kind of conduct we are willing to be part of.
Olly, didn’t you just write in a previous comment? I swear, you must be paid by the word.
You sure you’re not jim22 now? Lurker is such a wholesome name.
” if the bakery refused to make a cake to celebrate the”
Your problem is consistency. I don’t like the law, but I will abide by it. The bakery you are thinking of would have sold the couple a “generic” cake under the law. The restaurant was serving only “generic” food.
Be consistent and honest.
I think I agree. The bakery shouldn’t have had to state refusing service due to religious concerns. They should be able to refuse service for what ever reason they want. We may not like that, but we can vote with our patronage.
Olly, have to how funny it is that you turn the Turley article into a biography about yourself. Please, spare us the details.
Here is Mr. Anonymous in his own words, “”have to how funny it is….” Maybe there is a gas leak in his mom’s basement.
HullBobby,
When leftists put their hate and rage on display, their intolerance of anything outside of their echo chamber, that is when the jellyfish is loudest in it’s attempts to deflect from the hate and rage the good professor points out and any comments that note the leftist hate and rage.
“put their hate and rage on display, their intolerance of anything outside of their echo chamber,” Echo chamber you say?
Um… that’s just like what you and hullbobby do here all day?
It is not a echo chamber when leftists prove our points with their own words and actions. You do not help them with your inane comments that also prove leftist stupid and crazy.
Give the left some of its own medicine picket the place
That is one way to do it. Personally I would rather ghost them. Nothing rattles a business owner more than unlocking the door every morning to an empty room, a dead reservation book, and reviews that say ‘we do not eat here.’ Peaceful pickets are lawful, but they can also give a place the kind of attention it craves. Silence, empty tables, and customers quietly going elsewhere send the same message without giving them a spotlight.
Ghost them now will you? Aren’t you the little psycho.
If, as the Founding fathers said, do unto others as they would do unto you. Right?
Seems to me all that crap you write, that you just steered into the maniac void.
What if this restaurant told a black customer they felt uncomfortable around them and asked them to leave? Would that be okay?
Hi Bill, stick to the facts, playing hypotheticals just shows you have no real insight or response to the article.
Bill,
Yes it would. But it would be a bad business decision.
No, that wouldn’t be ok. That seems like racial discrimination in public accomodations (including motels, restaurants, and transportation). That’s the problem with those signs that say, “We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.”
Where I live, the frontier seems to be a lanky six-footer adjusting attire and makeup in a ladies room at a church or restaurant. Does everyone have to accept that?
The person of gesture might’ve been someone waiting in line, watching folks through the window who had already eaten and paid lounging around for another half hour. Were I the owner, I might’ve asked, “Is there anything else we can get you? As you can see, we do have a line outside.”
Are you really that dense? Never mind, I answered my own question.
“Ghost” in the context OLLY was using, as in he would not frequent their establishment, have them cater anything, nor join their supper club, not buy any of their products at local markets, take any of their classes, or rent out their River Room.
Are you really that dense? Never mind, I answered my own question.
Upstate, at this point he’s flailing.
OLLY,
I agree. Nothing is more depressing to a business owner than no foot traffic, empty tables, front of the house staff standing around doing nothing for hours on end. Back of the house staff not cooking. A business, especially the food and bev kind, needs to make X amount of dollars just to make overhead. Get a few days of not making overhead, especially on Thurs nights and the weekends, and that business is in serious trouble.
Uncivilized behavior, my grandmother would say. Perhaps we are actually witnessing the devolution of our species. I wonder what sort of raging animal homo sapiens will turn into.
Uncivilized? Nothing of the sort. They ate, they paid, they were escorted out. That’s called service. Even left a tip.
you didn’t read the story.
You don’t get jokes?
Dad!!! C’mon! Come up from the basement, take a shower and got to work!!! The family leave income expired last month and the kids are hungry!
ISOA, great name, great comment!
hullbooby, great comment! Woo hoo!
What did you say Analymous.
I’m uncomfortable and afraid around liberals, especially Democratic politicians, liberal trolls, femi-nazi, BLM and Antifa members. I guess I will have to start complaining and getting them kicked out of places I frequent.
Really, did she do anything to threaten, harass or intimidate anyone by eating there? It is ridiculous and that restaurant should be sued and go out of business. Sanders won’t do that because she is a good tolerant person. The party of tolerance the Democrats prove everyday they have no tolerance for anyone that disagrees with their views.
Uncomfortable and afraid? Sorry snowflake that your feelings are hurt.
Make them famous — > on yelp.com.
When a restaurant like the Croissanterie forces a group of people to leave for no other reason then one person in the group makes some of the employees uncomfortable then they deserve to have individuals who may very well have gone, or may be going to this place to eat post their comment/s as to how they feel the restaurant performed in doing such a thing. YELP needs to wake up and realize that it’s a different nation out there today! Both side should have to right to use any outlet to express their thoughts as to how he or she feels the restaurant performed! By NOT ALLOWING individual to express that makes you part of the same problem that allowed Croissanterie to do what they did! Wake up Yelk, or your reputation could also be destroyed!!