In topsy-turvy Trump era, let’s keep pie apolitical
Ken Herman says in a world increasingly divided by politics, let’s give a piece a chance, shall we?
The things that divide us on election days now boil over into every days: What we buy, where we eat, the team we back in the Super Bowl. All of that, and more, has taken on overbaked political overtones.
I guess it’s always happened to some extent. But in this odd epoch when everything seems more intense, it just seems, well, more intense.
Suddenly, some shoppers with a pre-existing penchant for shopping at Nordstrom now also have a political motivation thanks to our first family that’s also our first family ever to be this kind of first family. I can’t remember presidential product placement like this. Billy Beer maybe, though I don’t remember President Jimmy Carter hawking his brother’s brew.
The anti-Trump Grabyourwallet movement has a long list of Trump-related entities to shun.
“For those who do not want to support the Trump family and their politics, this guide identifies places of business that should be boycotted for currently profiting from a relationship with the Trump family,” the Grabyourwallet website says.
Political spillover to the nonpolitical also has spilled over to the football field. Some fans with no allegiance to either the Atlanta Falcons or New England Patriots decided to pick a Super Bowl favorite based on the fact that Patriots’ quarterback Tom Brady is buddies, to some extent, with President Donald Trump. Somewhere there’s also probably somebody who rooted against the Georgia-based team because of lingering sentiments about the Civil War.
Purchases based on politics probably are OK, but it can get out of hand. Exhibit A was a recent letter to the editor (of the Austin American-Statesman) from the owners of Blue Bonnet Cafe in Marble Falls in the wake of a recent story by my colleague Jonathan Tilove. He wrote about folks in outlying areas around Austin who back Trump and are pleased about what he’s in done in his first few weeks in office. Several Blue Bonnet patrons quoted in the story are in that group.
“We are disappointed that readers are making disparaging comments and calling for a boycott of the Blue Bonnet Cafe due to the views expressed by some of the diners in Jonathan Tilove’s article published on Feb. 5,” the cafe owners wrote. “Not one member of the Blue Bonnet staff, management or ownership was interviewed or quoted in the story.”
Tilove’s story drew more than 200 online comments, some intolerant of other people’s political leanings.
“To all those insane and crazy people at that cafe,” one reader posted. “Are you just plainly blind or just plain stupid or did Trump pay you people off to vote for him?”
“Bubba, Redneck Joe and Backwoods Barbie walk into Blue Bonnet Cafe,” said another.
“Boycott Blue Bonnet Cafe!!!” said another.
“Good to know what restaurant to avoid in the area,” said another.
“And their pie is sticky and chewy,” said another.
Cafe owners John and Belinda Kemper and David and Lindsay Plante, in their letter, want you to know Blue Bonnet “has a rich tradition of serving good food and providing friendly service to everyone who walks through its doors regardless of their race, religion, origin or politics.”
You’re good with shopping and eating with folks of differing races, religions and origins, right? Sure you are, because you’re a good and enlightened person. So how about if we see if we can also eat in cafes with folks of differing politics?
“Since 1929, Blue Bonnet Cafe has been the place to see your neighbor or friends, catch up on what’s happening around town or stop when you’re just passing through,” the cafe’s website notes. “Good food and friendly greetings are what we’re all about. In fact, they’ve made us world famous.”
Here’s the deal. As much as ever in my lifetime, our ability to move forward together might be up to those of us down here at the Real People level. We curse about the paralyzing polarization in Washington, as we should. And then some among us dabble in it down here at the Real People level, at the cafe level.
Shop where you want to shop. Don’t shop where you don’t want to shop. And feel free to let your politics guide those decisions.
But now, perhaps more than ever, it’s important that we down here at the Real People level avoid Washingtonizing things as mundane as the politics of fellow cafe patrons. And this could grow even more challenging as we find out if the demise of National Security Adviser Michael Flynn is the end of the rocky beginning of the Trump administration or the beginning of its painful end.
The good news in Marble Falls is that Blue Bonnet co-owner David Plante told me business hasn’t suffered despite the intemperate calls for boycott. “We’ve heard some things,” he said, “but for us it’s been business as usual.”
“Oh,” it says on the Blue Bonnet website, “and don’t forget to save room for a piece of one of our legendary pies.”
In the wake of the small-scale political firestorm at the cafe that typifies the large-scale political firestorm roiling our nation, I asked Plante about his leanings.
He’s willing to buck prevailing sentiment at the Blue Bonnet: Though coconut cream is the biggest seller, he’s a peanut butter pie guy.
How about, at cafes all around Texas, we put down the political knives, pick up the pie forks and not worry about fellow patrons’ politics? Pie, people.
As usual, John Lennon said it best: Give piece a chance.