Takes the cake
A GOOD salesperson can sell anything to anybody. They can and will go the extra mile to get the deal done.
A good salesperson doesn’t care who you are or what you believe. Your money is as good as anybody else’s.
This was the bedrock of the American dream. It’s all about aspiration. To improve yourself and grow your wealth. Everybody can get ahead if you work hard enough. Aspiration is rewarded, because effort is recognised and equality is guaranteed in the eyes of God and under the law.
The consistent glorification of the concept of a level playing field is buttressed by the rejection of a prohibitive class structure.
This is one of the defining philosophical principles of democracy. Freedom and fluidity. When the market is free, we are free. You can believe in whoever you want, listen to rock or classical or jazz. Doesn’t matter.
You can wear a suit and tie or jeans a T-shirt. Doesn’t matter. A good salesperson welcomes business and closes a deal with: “Have a nice day, come back real soon.”
Donald Trump believes he is one of the greatest salesmen who ever walked the face of the earth.
He even wrote a book called The Art of the Deal. Yet Trump is a complex human — a free marketeer who believes in the power of tariffs and protectionism. A Republican president who is prepared sit at a table in Singapore and do a deal with the supreme leader of communist North Korea.
This is Trumplandia now, a possible version of our future. Or is it?
Remember the wedding cake baker who didn’t wantt to bake a wedding cake for a gay y couple because of his own religious ligious beliefs?
Not the philosophical cal baker that Australian conservatives rvatives were referencing during ng the nonbinding survey. No, in n the US, there is an actual baker er and his name is Jack Phillips (pictured). In 2012 Phillips refused ed to bake a cake for a same sex couple ouple on religious grounds.
Charlie Craig and Dave Mullins believed they were being discriminated against, , so they took Phillips to court. Six years later (and no doubt countless ountless many thousands of dollars ollars in legal fees) in June 2018, 8, the baker has won the case.
The US Supreme Court ourt has declared that the wedding ding cake baker does indeed have ve a Constitutional right to o refuse to bake a wedding cake for customers he does not t like.
The court ruled 7–2 2 in his favour — a landmark decision in the US for many reasons ons and this ruling has come down n in a particularly divisive time ime in their history.
What the baker believes lieves is more important than the service industry. The salesman is more important than the customer.
The ramifications are overwhelming.
In Australia, Conservatives have long argued that a baker should have the right to withdraw his beater.
In their opinion, religious beliefs are more important than the customer service of a happy couple. The US court agrees. A free society means that a baker is not forced to bake a cake. They can judge their customer first. They can decide who they want to serve.
That’s a surprise if everybody is supposed to be equal in the eyes of old Lady Liberty. But now, in the US the Supreme Court has so held.
This week the Press Secretary of the White House was asked to leave a restaurant. Sarah Sanders usually spends all day explaining the daily actions of Donald Trump. She took to Twitter and told the world that she had been asked to leave The Red Hen.
The Red Hen owners said their staff did not want to serve the person who serves Donald Trump. So they asked their employer to ask Sanders to leave.
The owner said: “This feels like the moment in our democracy when people have to make uncomfortable actions and decisions to uphold their morals ... the restaurant has certain stand- ards that I feel it has to uphold, such as honesty, and compassion, and co-operation.”
Sanders was not charged for the food she had ordered or the cheese her group had consumed.
Sarah Sanders said this action said more about the restaurateur than it did about the White House. But really it says a whole bunch about America, freedom and aspiration.
This is the new world we are entering.
The customer is not always right. Ross Mueller is a freelance writer and director