Most OVERBLOWN Political Story of the Year..Are you Freakin Kiddin me?!

First I want to apologize for my absence as of late, life has gotten rather busy for me lately and I don't always have the time to think out a piece but today was I was pushed over the edge by what has to be one of the dumbest and most overblown stories of the year. And that story is the "Chick-fil-A controversy".

Now here's how it all started..

On June 16 of this year, Chief Executive Officer of the Chick-fil-A Dan Cathy stated the following on The Ken Coleman radio show:

"I think we are inviting God's judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say, 'We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage'. I pray God's mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we have the audacity to define what marriage is about." (1)

Now the fact that this statement caused controversy is not in all surprising..How much controversy it started is what bothers me the most. Anytime someone of public stature makes such a strong stand on an issue that is a major arguing point in this great nation of ours is bound to make the news and rightfully so, but what happened afterwards is the really troubling part. But before I get to that, this is another interesting tidbit to this story. In January of this year it was reported that members of the leadership at Chick-fil-A had been major contributors to several organizations that oppose gay marriage including a charity ran by the company called the WinShape Foundation has made their policy to not allow gay couples to participate in marriage retreats sponsored by the group. Now if you combine that little bit of information with Mr. Cathy's statements one can get a better idea of where some of the anger that followed came from. But to me, that still doesn't explain let alone justify the events that followed.(2)

I'm of course talking about how the mayors of Boston and Chicago (and to some extent the mayor of San Francisco) not only denounced Chick-fil-A's stance on the issue (which alone is fine, they have the right) but also threatened to boycott & even ban the restaurant from their cities! (3) Ridiculous right?

For obvious reasons, these threats from the mayors are as empty and idiotic as they come..because you can't punish a company for the religious or political beliefs held by its employees/owners let alone ban them from your city. It's as clear a violation of the 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution as can exist. So boneheaded is this stance by the mayors that politicos from both sides of the ideological aisle came to Chick-fil-A's defence..Hell even the UCLA (largely hated by conservatives) came to their defense!

But so bad was the firestorm against Chick-fil-A that Mike Huckabee (aka Huckleberry as I lovingly call him) called for a nation-wide day of appreciation for the restaurant chain to show their support and thousands of Americans actually came out specifically to support them.

Now I want to stop for a second and clarify something. I am not saying what pro-gay groups and the mayors of those three cities did isn't newsworthy or just outright moronic. I am just saying that THEIR reaction to the CEO of Chick-fil-A statements is so overblown it's almost not worth writing about. In other words, their actions MADE this into a big story and I hate it when that crap happens..

Also, before the pro-gay rights folks get all bent out of shape with me for thinking so little of the stance Chick-fil-A took on the issue of gay marriage, I was just want to clarify something. To be 100% honest, the issue of gay marriage is not one of my priorities. It is an important issue no doubt, but my exact opinion of the subject is somewhat complicated and I don't want to spend half this piece explaining it. Long story short, I think a fundamental change is needed to fix how both federal/state governments treat the institution of marriage to "solve" this issue, if that's even possible.

But the most fundamental element of this story is this..Mr. Cathy is entitled to his opinion on this issue (and any other for that matter) and efforts by the mayors of Chicago, Boston, and San Francisco are not just childish and idiotic, they are outright unconstitutional. IF and only IF Mr. Cathy and by extension Chick-fil-A decided to not serve gay/lesbian customers would what they said be "wrong" in the legal-sense.

But this story gets "better" and even dumber IMHO.

Not too surprising, many wondered how the two candidates for the highest office in all the land (President Obama and Mitt Romney) felt about this controversy. And both candidates were asked about it and guess what? Neither commented, with both simply making statements that made it clear they wanted nothing to do with it..And they were absolutely right in doing so. Here's why.

For one, such a STUPID and OVERBLOWN story is hardly a national crisis and has NOTHING to do with the election in November and is in my opinion beneath anyone running for that office to even respond to. Think of it this way, does it make sense to ask about such a controversy in an election-cycle that is centered on our shaky economy and rapidly changing world around us? Of course not. There are REAL issues we should be asking the candidates about, not some idiotic controversy started by the moronic actions of three mayors and pro-gay rights groups. But it gets worse, because some conservative groups are honestly outraged and disappointed by the fact that Mitt Romney chose to ignore this issue and actually focus on the issues (God forbid right?). (4)

Now I can understand their disappointment I supposed but some are making it out to be some big turning point for his campaign against President Obama and this could come back to haunt him...You have got to be kidding me! Honestly, what are social conservatives going to do..vote for somebody else? Of course not! Now if there was a more conservative alternative candidate for SOCONs to vote for then maybe Romney would have something to worry about..but they don't so for better or worse they are stuck with him. The only real risk is SOCONs using this issue as a reason to simply not show up and vote but considering how much they DISDAIN the President, does that sound very likely to anybody?

Moral of the story, while what the mayors of those three cities did was stupid and certainly worthy of the evening news, that doesn't mean you waste everyone's time by asking how the two candidates for the HIGHEST OFFICE IN THE LAND feel about it..

Sources

1.) http://www.ajc.com/business/what-dan-cathy-said-1484986.html 

2.) http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2011/01/31/chick-fil-a-defends-its-values.html 

3.) http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-san-franciso-mayor-to-chickfila-keep-out-20120726,0,4169780.story 

4.) http://www.newsmax.com/newswidget/romney-chickfila-catholic-league/2012/08/06/id/447703?promo_code=EC70-1&utm_source=spectator&utm_medium=nmwidget&utm_campaign=widgetphase1

Disclaimer

Any opinions and/or views expressed in the above piece are purely those of the author and not of any political or non-political organization. Any re-posting of this work MUST include this disclaimer.