Late last week, State Sen. Mike McGuire was among a chorus of the outraged to tee off on the Trump immigration policy that separated children from their families and continues to do so despite the presidential flail-fest over the weekend. McGuire called the policy heartless and cruel, inhumane and indecent, “even by Trump standards.” He called the policy “barbaric.”
Those are strong words, which do not in themselves indicate that the state senator is a big fan of the “civility” argument being bandied about by Trump-intimidated politicians such as Nancy Pelosi. That’s because there is a big difference between the civility argument and everything that the Trump administration stands for.
So why would high-profile Democrats such as Pelosi pile on to the bandwagon of hand-wringing that surrounded a recent spate of citizen-driven ejections of Trump officials from various restaurants around the D.C. area? Who knows, but Pelosi needs to be next on the list of officials worthy of public shaming.
This ongoing food fight reminds one of another food-related act of resistance, which is now pretty much outlawed in this country because of, you know, terrorism. The 1960s in America were replete with instances of food-shaming politicians by, for instance, smashing a banana cream pie in their faces.
As historical artifact, there is a delightful sense of theater around those pie-shame episodes of yore, and while it would be dreadfully irresponsible to suggest a return to this all-American form of protest . . . no, don’t do it. It’s terrorism!
The updated pie-shaming approach to resistance is a far superior strategy in any event. These efforts to shame the otherwise shameless could fairly be described as “burrito shaming.” Two of the ejected Trumpians were forced out of Mexican restaurants, and both of them are shills for the worst of the worst of the deplorables who landed this lunatic in the White House.
You want to eat in peace, Stephen Miller, Kirstjen Nielsen, Sarah Sanders? Here’s a suggestion: There’s plenty of available seating at Chick-fil-A and Papa John’s. Nobody will bother you there.
Yes, I’m with Maxine Waters on this one. That’s not an incitement to violence, just as it’s not an act of terrorism to smash a banana cream pie in someone’s face—it’s justified resistance to policies that are cruel, inhumane, barbaric, indecent and inhumane.
Tom Gogola is the news editor for the ‘Bohemian’ and the ‘Pacific Sun.’
