A popular bar in Chicago has implemented a new dress code in which patrons are banned from wearing “Make America Great Again” hats in order to help the institution maintain a “classy environment,” the Daily Wire reports. The new dress code is the latest in a string of recent incidents in which private institutions are targeting Trump supporters.
“After much consternation and consideration and to maintain a ‘classy environment,’ Replay Lincoln Park has implemented a new and strictly enforced dress code,” a Facebook post from Replay Lincoln Park stated. “No face tattoos, no specific hats, please see below. Let’s keep it classy Chicago. Sincerely, management.”
And while the dress code seems innocuous enough, the post features a photo of a man wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat.
The bar’s owner, Mark Kwiatkowski, admitted to NBC 5 Chicago that it was his intention to make a statement. “I was just frustrated and I just kind of wanted to make somewhat of a statement,” Kwiatkowski said. “I felt like we did have an opportunity to say something that might draw some attention to this ugliness.”
“I think what we would do is kindly ask them to remove [the hat] but we would let them in certainly and maybe have an opportunity to discuss all of this and see their opinions,” Kwiatkowski continued.
And while private establishments should have the right to determine whom they wish to serve, there are few other scenarios in which the Left would agree with that stance, underscoring once more the hypocrisy of the Left.
The dress code is just the latest incident in which Trump’s allies are being targeted while in private establishments.
On June 22, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and her family were asked to leave The Red Hen, a restaurant in Virginia, because of her relationship to the Trump administration.
Owner Stephanie Wilkinson claimed that she cared more about her principles in that moment than her profits. “I have a business, and I want the business to thrive,” she told the Washington Post, but she added she felt the need to take a stance against the “inhumane and unethical” administration.
“I explained [to Sanders] that the restaurant has certain standards that I feel it has to uphold, such as honesty, and compassion, and cooperation,” Wilkinson said.
And the harassment is not coming from just business owners. Days before The Red Hen incident, senior advisor Stephen Miller was heckled and called a “fascist” by patrons at a Mexican restaurant in Washington, D.C., Newsweek reports. Similarly, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielson was confronted by protesters at MXDC Cocina Mexicana, ultimately compelling her to make an immediate exit.
U.S. Representative Maxine Waters was inspired by these incidents and encouraged supporters to continue to harass members of the Trump administration at restaurants and in public for defending his “zero tolerance” immigration policy during a speech to a Los Angeles rally on Saturday. “I have no sympathy for these people that are in this administration who know it is wrong what they’re doing on so many fronts, but they tend to not want to confront this president,” Waters said.
“For these members of his Cabinet who remain and try to defend him, they’re not going to be able to go to a restaurant, they’re not going to be able to stop at a gas station, they’re not going to be able to shop at a department store. The people are going to turn on them, they’re going to protest, they’re going to absolutely harass them until they decide that they’re going to tell the president, ‘No I can’t hang with you, this is wrong, this is unconscionable, and we can’t keep doing this to children,'” Waters said.
“You think we’re rallying now, you ain’t seen nothing yet,” she exclaimed. “Already you have members of your Cabinet being booed out of restaurants. Who have protesters taking up at your house chanting, ‘No peace, no sleep.'”
Waters speech read like a not-so-subtle threat to members of the Trump administration. “Let’s make sure we show up wherever we have to show up, and if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere…. Mr. President, we will see you every day, every hour of the day, everywhere that we are, to let you know you can’t get away with this,” Waters concluded.
Fortunately, not all liberals are celebrating the attacks on Trump’s Cabinet.
A Washington Post editorial entitled “Let the Trump team eat in peace” raised concerns over the lack of boundaries between public and private lives. “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,” it said.
David Axelrod, former top aide to President Obama, took to Twitter to opine over the recent incidents. “Kind of amazed and appalled by the number of folks on Left who applauded the expulsion of @PressSec and her family from a restaurant,” said Axelrod.
“This, in the end, is a triumph for @realDonaldTrump vision of America: Now we’re divided by red plates & blue plates! #sad.”
Conservatives would reply to Axelrod that the Obama administration was the most divisive administration in generations, fueling racial, sexual, and economic animosity; and this — as well as the many riots, assaults, and murders by leftists such as Black Lives Matter in recent years — is just the type of division he sowed. He got what he wanted.
