The Washington Post's Jonathan Capehart says that he supports Chick-fil-A President and CEO Dan Cathy's freedom to speak out against gay marriage, but he also supports the rights of those who make their displeasure known through protest.
Elected officials across the country are withdrawing the welcome mat from their cities. And there have been calls for boycotts. So, Mike Huckabee declared Aug. 1 "Chick fil-A Appreciation Day."
The former Arkansas governor and 2008 presidential candidate turned money-making radio host explained why he did so on the Tom Joyner Morning Show during an interview with Roland Martin this morning. And, I have to say, I agree with him — almost.
Right out of the gate, Huckabee corrected Martin's assertion that tomorrow's action was about expressing support for Cathy's anti-marriage-equality stance. "It's really not about just even saying you support the position of Chick-fil-A's president," he said. "It's about supporting the idea that a person who runs a company has a right to free speech, has not been disenfranchised from his First Amendment rights because he runs a company anymore than Ben and Jerry's should be disenfranchised from their views or Jeff Bezos of Amazon or Howard Schultz of Starbucks." All three favor same-sex marriage. Huckabee would later add, "How would it go over if the mayor of Dallas said that Starbucks wasn't welcome" because of the views of its CEO?
We all know the answer to that rhetorical question. All hell would break loose. And rightly so. What that fictitious mayor would have done would have been backward, supportive of discrimination and wrong. But I part company with Huckabee over something else he said.
"This is about whether or not people ought to take action as was being taken against Chick-fil-A … because they disagreed with the personal views of a person of the company. Nobody has alleged that Chick-fil-A has discriminated against its customers or employees. That would be something to truly protest."
Read Jonathan Capehart's entire piece at the Washington Post.
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