Saturday, November 19, 2016

Update: In Which Mr. Trump Tweets -- And Yes, His Is ... Inane, And Ignorant Of Our First Amendment Jurisprudence


UPDATED -- Sunday Night At 8 PM EST: In what the patron must have decided was retaliation -- for the events at the New York show on Friday night (described below) -- here in Chicago, on Saturday night, an inebriated Trump supporter heckled the cast through two numbers -- beginning his profanity laced rant at the line "Immigrants -- we get the job done." Will Mr. Trump demand an apology from his drunken supporter? Don't hold your breath, here. . . ["The theater must always be a safe place. . ." -- Donald Trump. Heh.]

Here is the Trib's account of the moment: ". . .According to audience member Brea Hayes of Batavia, who was at the performance, an audience member seated in the front of the balcony shouted profanities and election-related political statements after the cast sang the line, "Immigrants / We get the job done," which is part of the show's "Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down)" number. . . ."

[End, updated portion.]

In the last post, I included an actual clip of the speech by Brandon Victor Dixon (playing VP Aaron Burr), as well as the text -- so that the world might see and know that the cast was both respectful, and loving, in expressing their concerns to the VP-Elect. [The cast even asked the audience to refrain from booing "don't boo" -- as the cast clearly believes, in the great American way, that ideas -- even controversial ones (Trump/Pence ideas) -- are to be heard and evaluated, in the theater.]

In my view (and that of almost all constitutional scholars), the theater has long been a core First Amendment Zone -- free expression shall reign. [At the theater, ideas wear the crown of royalty -- not any one person, any longer, here in America.]

Remember here also that Mr. Pence chose to come to the theater (no one forced him to be there) -- to see a musical (in part) about political revolutions, and incendiary ideas -- ideas that form the core of this nation's birth. He chose to go see a play about people the British would have called "traitors to the crown." [It should give him hope -- not fear, that our citizenry is so engaged in their own DEMOCRACY. But whatever -- it is a political play. The VP cannot live in a bubble, any more than the President can.]

If he recognized himself (as Mr. Trump plainly has this morning, by Tweet), in the role of the 18th Century Crown -- not the patriot. . . and felt a little uncomfortable about that -- well, that is the whole point (in my view).

The completely daft notion -- that Mr. Trump thinks an apology is warranted -- where Mr. Pence stepped into the theater, and paid money, specifically to see an exchange of (what some might think of as) "incendiary" political ideas -- ideas he might disagree with. . . is stupefying.

Mr. Trump ought to grow up, and read a little First Amendment history. And he ought to get used to being booed, as well. He no longer can exclusively run "invite only" private rallies/appearances -- he's accountable to ALL of us, now -- 24/7. And it will be a long four years if he doesn't grow some thicker skin than this. Here it is again, for the record:





Finally, I don't recall Mr. Trump asking for an apology -- when more than a few sitting GOP Senators booed Mr. Obama, when he started to give his State of the Union address a few years ago. I guess he just doesn't understand what he's signed up for. Welcome to the Bigs, Mr. Trump. That's called a shave and a haircut -- God save you -- if the Infinite deems you worthy.

नमस्ते

1 comment:

condor said...

And, true to form from the campaign -- Mr. Trump can't. stop. digging. And he's already standing in a hole... he started tweeting again, before dawn on Sunday -- attacking SNL skits, and returning to the Hamilton coda -- even though Mr. Pence has agreed that "that's what freedom sounds like..."

Here is the President Elect (after he deleted a tweet remarking that Mr. Dixon "couldn't even memorize [the coda] lines"):

“The cast and producers of Hamilton, which I hear is highly overrated, should immediately apologize to Mike Pence for their terrible behavior....”

What a small mind he has. It's sad, actually.

This is posted in commentary because it is no longer newsworthy that Mr. Trump's behavior is ... childish. That's an old news proven fact, now.

Namaste