It’s been a weird week for Republicans being denied access to basic services—like farm-to-table steaks or standing next to Seth Rogen—with White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders reporting on Twitter today that a Virginia restaurant denied her and her family service, solely on the basis of who she is, and also all of the evil things she’s said, done, condoned, defended, and just generally abetted over the last 12 months.
In her tweet, Sanders made sure to name the restaurant—Lexington, VA’s Red Hen—ensuring that America would once again get to play out its vicious political divides in the most healthy and cathartic manner possible: Leaving thousands of angry or glowing reviews on the restaurant’s Yelp page, many contending that the Red Hen’s food either killed beloved relatives or cured terminal diseases, and none of them, presumably, from anyone who’s actually ever eaten there.
Yelp will, presumably, shut this all down shortly, as it has in the past when businesses fall under (or thrust themselves into) the internet’s crosshairs. For now, though, the Red Hen’s current 2.5 rating (which factors in the more than 5,000 new reviews the place has received in the last few hours) serves as a strange sort of barometer for our nation’s stupid soul, as one side screams about censorship and bigotry, while the other points out that there are, on the whole, a lot worse things that can happen to a family in America right now than to be denied entry to a mid-priced eatery, and that there’s something a little galling about Donald Trump’s personal mouthpiece complaining about a business exercising its god-given right to refuse service.
All we can think, though, is “Thank god nobody said anything about her makeup this time.” That would just be cruel.