WaPo | OVER THE WEEKEND there was a fair bit of argument about the decision by a small restaurant in Lexington, Va., not to serve dinner
to President Trump’s press secretary. It wasn’t the first time recently
that strong political feelings have spilled into what used to be
considered the private sphere. We understand the strength of the
feelings, but we don’t think the spilling is a healthy development.
Sarah
Huckabee Sanders was dining with a few other people at the Red Hen in
Lexington Friday night. Several of the restaurant’s staff are gay and
objected to Ms. Sanders’s defense of Mr. Trump’s discriminatory policies
against transgender people. The staff also objected to the
administration’s recent actions leading to the separation of thousands of children from their parents
at the U.S.-Mexico border. Respecting her staff’s wishes, the
restaurant owner politely asked Ms. Sanders to leave, and Ms. Sanders
politely acceded. She then tweeted about the episode, turning it into a public controversy.
This followed by a few days the very public heckling of two architects of that border policy, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, at Washington restaurants. Last month a Nebraska sociology professor was found guilty of vandalism for spraying false blood at the home of a National Rifle Association lobbyist in Alexandria.
It’s
not a new tactic for protesters of one sort or another to target a
public official’s home or private life. But never-at-rest social media
have blurred the line between work hours and private time. Cellphone
cameras make it ever easier to intrude and broadcast.
