Suzannah Van Rooy, a server at Beuchert’s Saloon on Capitol Hill in D.C., told “The Washingtonian,” “I personally would refuse to serve any person in office who I know of as being a sex trafficker or trying to deport millions of people.” “It’s not, ‘Oh, we hate Republicans,’” she explained. “It’s that this person has moral convictions that are strongly opposed to mine, and I don’t feel comfortable serving them.” “People were a lot more motivated the first time around to do those kinds of shows of passion. This time around, there is kind of a sense of defeat and acceptance,” Van Rooy added. “But I hope that people still do stand up to this administration and tell them their thoughts on their misbehavior.” Van Rooy also felt it was appropriate to make similar comments on the restaurant’s social media accounts.

Ms. Van Rooy was promptly fired for her misbehavior. Good. In announcing her canning on its Facebook page, the restaurant said in part, “[A]s a restaurant we are simply horrified to be associated with base prejudice. None of us saw this coming….we would welcome any opportunity to clarify that Ms. Van Rooy is not a manager at our restaurant but instead a part time server and that she had no authority or permission to act as spokesperson or hijack our social media accounts. We beg you all not to condemn the group of hardworking folks who have made Beuchert’s Saloon a neighborhood mainstay for a over dozen years. We are still the same restaurant known for its warm service and friendly staff, and hope you will all visit us soon. We look forward to serving you. All of you.”

One has to wonder what the woman was thinking, and how she possibly thought it was appropriate to announce to the world that she felt justified, in Washington, D.C. of all places, refusing to do her job as a server for anyone whose political views did not align with hers. This is no different in principle from the “No dogs or Irish served” bad old days of nativism and the Know Nothing Party. Presumably what what she was thinking was what the irresponsible rhetoric issuing from Democrats, “the resistance” and propaganda merchants in the media wanted her to think as they relentlessly pushed the destructive myth that those who do not support their beliefs and policies are fascists, threaten democracy, will put dissidents in prison camps and make women into baby-making slaves while deporting anyone with a skin shade darker that Ariana Grande’s. Yeah, they knew this was a lie and risked tearing the connective tissue holding our society together, but never mind: they had an election to win and power to keep, the ends justify the means, and they could try to clean up the mess later.

A pluralistic society and the American ideal of a vigorous but peaceful democracy functioning in an environment of mutual respect for new ideas and divergent opinions cannot long survive if people like Suzannah Van Rooy become the majority. As documented at various times on Ethics Alarms, conservatives have also indulged in this sort of arrogant bigotry here and there, recently as well as most tragically during the Red Scare and the McCarthy era. It is a social pathology and potentially a fatal one, and the cure is what the Beuchert’s Saloon management did combined with as universal condemnation as possible.

And shunning. Van Rooy can hold whatever delusions and biases she wants, but the conduct she has said she will engage in makes her untrustworthy as an employee and unsavory as a neighbor.

In fact, if President Biden wanted to do something to at least minimally repair his Presidential reputation, currently in shreds, this would be an excellent topic for an address to the nation. It wouldn’t make up for this…

…but it would be something.