Menino was seconded and thirded by Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel and San Francisco mayor Edwin Lee. Chick-Fil-A, said Mayor Emanuel, did not represent “Chicago values” — and he invited them to stay away. Lee took to Twitter to express gratitude that the nearest Chick-Fil-A was located 40 miles away.
Frum acts like the mayors' letters and tweets were just harmless rhetorical fluff. He studiously avoids seeing what conservatives and everyone else saw, including the ACLU, which is that just below the surface was a threat to use the power of government against a business simply because the owner expressed values they disagreed with. Conservatives are generally against whiny victimology but that's obviously not what this was. This was a case of bullying by the government, or at least the threat of it. Frum's attempt to conflate the two is pretty weasely.
Well said, Yardstick. We aren't whiny victims - but when economic threats are made against us if we express our religious beliefs - we are victims. Not willing victims, not whiny victims, but victims none the less...
The other thing is most of aren't as powerful as the owner of Chick-fil-A... how many of our businesses have been been treated with coordinated prejudice by liberals in government? Or even liberals in the private sector? How many small business in Chicago have been turned down for permits because the owner was Christian? Or Orthodox Jew? My guess is most...