TWO MONTHS AFTER SARAH SANDERS RESTAURANT EXPULSION, WINGNUTS STILL BOYCOTT ENTIRE TOWN

Okay, here's my last word on Steve Bannon and the allegedly "intolerant left."

Huh. Call me old-fashioned. But I would have thought that the point of a festival of ideas was to expose the audience to ideas. If you only invite your friends over, it’s called a dinner party. https://t.co/VwkL4zOrbX

— Malcolm Gladwell (@Gladwell) September 4, 2018

Let me point out that since the beginning of June, Steve Bannon has given lengthy interviews to MSNBC, CNBC, CNN, ABC's This Week, the Daily Beast, New York magazine, and Politico. There was nothing more than mild grumbling about these interviews; no other interviewees broke off cooperation with these news organizations because Bannon was interviewed. The interviews inspired no liberal boycotts. The response to the New Yorker Festival was because the invitation seemed to be an honor; Bannon was set to receive an honorarium for it.

So left-leaning people are not suppressing Bannon's ideas, even though I think we've heard just about enough of them.

****

Meanwhile, you know that conservatives are burning and otherwise mutilating Nike gear in protest of Colin Kaepernick's promotional contract with the company. You know that conservatives are livid because the soon-to-be-released movie First Man doesn't show the planting of a U.S. flag in its depiction of the first manned moon landing (and there are likely to be boycotts, even though the flag is shown in other scenes). But there's another event that seems to be setting off the right's outrage months after it occurred, and is causing problems for people other than the intended target.

AP reports from Lexington, Virginia:

A small town in Virginia is trying to recover its image after The Red Hen restaurant famously refused to serve President Donald Trump’s spokeswoman, Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

The Roanoke Times reported Sunday that a regional tourism board is pulling together emergency funds to boost its digital marketing campaign....

The Red Hen incident in June prompted thousands of a calls and emails to the tourism office. They’re still coming in. The office received a letter on Thursday from a Georgia family that wrote to say it would never return because of what happened.

A story at PJ Media stokes the anger in its account of what happened that night:

Stephanie Wilkinson, the owner of The Red Hen, reportedly followed the Sanders party across the street and organized a protest, "yelling and screaming at them from outside the restaurant and creating this scene," according to former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, even though Sanders had left the party.

Mike Huckabee "reported" this even though he wasn't there at the time. Shortly after the restaurant incident, Snopes contacted people at local businesses who'd actually know whether this happened. None confirmed it and one said, “It’s a very small town, so if something like that had happened, I would know.”

Under pressure, Wilkinson stepped down as a member of the business group Main Street Lexingon more than two months ago.

Still, the right -- which is, of course, free to boycott the restaurant -- is apparently thrilled that the whole town is suffering.

Town That Refused to Serve Sarah Sanders Now Needs Emergency Funds Because Suddenly Nobody Wants to Go There https://t.co/dMV8MTKEhO

— Sarah Palin (@SarahPalinUSA) September 4, 2018

Too bad an intolerant #left hater ruined opportunities for other small business owners. #DemocratsAreDangerous https://t.co/PVqqWFrwOy

— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) September 3, 2018

No, James -- too bad you guys are taking it out on everyone else in the town.