By David Bozeman — We could make this a regular feature. Just recently we profiled Papa John’s Pizza, whose founder and CEO remarked that Obamacare might force franchises to cut employee hours. They, of course, have been enduring threats of boycotts and verbal spitballs from various precincts of the left. Papa John, lest you didn’t know, is the modern-day version of Mr. Potter of It’s a Wonderful Life fame.
This week’s focus of derision is a seemingly benign arts and crafts chain named Hobby Lobby. Its owners, the Green Family, were recently denied an exemption from providing, through their insurance plan, morning-after and week-after birth control pills for their employees.
U.S. District Court Judge Joe Heaton claimed a compelling national interest in requiring the mandate. Furthermore, Hobby Lobby and its sister company, Mardel, Inc., do not qualify as religious organizations. And in late December, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor (who handles emergency requests for the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals) also denied a temporary injunction against the mandate.
Hobby Lobby is standing firm. According to latest reports, the company will face daily fines of over a million dollars a day in lieu of compliance. And the rest of the story just writes itself.
The comment sections at The Huffington Post and The Daily Beast offer such informative, engaging nuggets as: “Just one more company not to do business with;” “Retards;” “As an employee, they are a load of crap;” “Hypocrites — hiding a business decision behind a religious facade.”
Because the story broke during the holidays, it didn’t garner the attention of, say, Wal Mart, Chik-Fil-A, Hostess, McDonald’s, etc., and their violations of liberal orthodoxy. The company has suffered some mild rebukes editorially and on the political roundtables. Nonetheless, the aforementioned comments are the unfiltered sentiments of liberalism’s leadership. Elected Democrats and editorial writers, conversely, feed off the emotions emanating from members of their base, creating an unbroken and electorally potent circle of bile-spewing hatred.
The practicalities of Obamacare are seldom examined, as discussions quickly devolve into name-calling and invective. Sadly, not that many Americans care about the constraints placed on a private company. After all, what’s Hobby Lobby got to worry about? They got plenty of money.
Another comment sarcastically read “Oh, poor persecuted Christians. Woe is them.” How telling that your neighbors’ freedom matters so little in an election year, while voters giddily tell pollsters that Obama cares about me? Such is the navel-gazing vision illuminated by the left.
Interestingly, Judge Heaton did remark that he was “not unsympathetic” to Hobby Lobby and that Obama-care raises “concerns and issues not previously confronted by companies and their owners.” No kidding!
2013 will no doubt see many surprising companies and institutions in the left’s crosshairs. But despite their voting patterns, Americans love stores like Hobby Lobby and Wal Mart, they crave Papa John’s pizzas and Big Gulps and they drive gas-guzzling SUVs.
Even in victory, the left rages on, battling sensibilities and institutions dear to millions. For every owner of a Hobby Lobby or Papa John’s, there are millions working to fill his shoes or become his competitor. That is the spirit that we as a nation should nourish, while tuning out the ravings of those at war, not just with individual companies, but with America itself.
David Bozeman, a former Libertarian Party Chairman, is a Liberty Features Syndicated writer.
