Of the local Huckabees

Some people, as they say, were raised right

This could have gone sideways, and quick, if it weren’t for the place and the people. And sometimes places make the people. As any man living in the South would understand. For every man who marries a Southern woman marries up.

The incident, smack dab in the middle of Virgina, did go viral — but that’s more due to this modern age and our gadgets. Add in the instantaneous nature of social media, a national political actor, a president who can’t let even the low ones go by without swinging, several late-night comics trying to annoy the censors, and you have what could have been a major fuss. Instead of a minor one.

The story goes that Sarah Huckabee Sanders walked into a restaurant in semi-rural Virginia the other night, and was asked to leave. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is, as you know, the main spokesperson at the White House. That White House. This White House. That alone was enough to turn brother against brother on Facebook.

It seems the staff at this small restaurant couldn’t bring themselves to serve Mrs. Sanders’ party. We’d say they were clutching their pearls, if we didn’t think that would offend them overmuch.

But Sarah Huckabee Sanders — she of the Arkansas Huckabees — didn’t throw a fit, nor a plate, when she was asked to leave. Unlike so many others in this Age of Offense, she didn’t cause a scene or threaten to sue. Or belt out “Soul-Shattering Insulted,” always one of the standards on the victimization playlist. It’s played once an hour. Instead, she stood up and left. The owner of the restaurant — who cares the joint’s name? let them buy an ad — said her staff had called her when Mrs. Sanders joined a group last Friday evening. And the restaurant owner’s staff convinced her to pull the spokesman aside.

“I was babbling a little,” the owner told the papers. “But I got my point across in a polite and direct fashion. I explained that the restaurant has certain standards that I feel it has to uphold, such as honesty, and compassion, and cooperation. I said, ‘I’d like to ask you to leave.’”

Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ answer: “That’s fine. I’ll go.”

That’s how a lady reacts to an insult. Who wants to be somewhere you’re not wanted? We’ve known many other women — or at least we’ve seen them on cable news — who might have acted much differently. Emphasis on acted.

Our considered editorial opinion on the matter, or at least how Sarah Huckabee Sanders handled it:

She was raised right.

And if that little semi-rural restaurant has enough business to refuse Republican money, bless it all to pieces. For we’ll bet there’ll be a lot of folks smack dab in the middle of Virginia who might find another plate lunch somewhere in the future. Surely there are other restaurants there — those that need everybody’s business.

Now for the nonsense. When something like the above story comes along, nonsense always follows. And from the usual places.

For the record: No, this has nothing at all to do with the wedding-cake-and-gay-marriages case.

Not only social media, but actual members of the commentariat in good standing — with real names attached to their work — chided not only Sarah Huckabee Sanders, but the Trump administration in general, after the restaurant’s refusal. If we give them the benefit of the doubt, and raise their arguments up a few grades all the way to kindergarten, their argument seems to be: Nah, nah. You supported somebody who wouldn’t serve a gay couple a wedding cake, and won that one, so now you get what’s always been coming.

Except . . . except a lot.

First, nothing has been settled in that gay wedding cake controversy. The U.S. Supreme Court punted on the issue, which it does often. (The U.S. Supreme Court punts on second down.) The Court has made no determination whether a baker in Colorado must bake a cake for a same-sex wedding, or not. The ruling from earlier this month simply said the Colorado commission that was supposed to rule on the dispute showed an overwhelming hostility to the Christian baker, and his religion, when he should have been given a fair and impartial hearing.

Second, said baker offered to sell the couple anything already made in his store, anything readily available to the public. That’s something that Sarah Huckabee Sanders wasn’t afforded.

We wouldn’t say the two case studies in politeness, or the lack thereof, is like comparing apples and oranges. It’s more like comparing apples and rocking chairs. The commentariat should do better, even if Facebook cannot.

Maybe the moral of the story, in the Sarah Huckabee Sanders story anyway, is that civility is still alive in this era. Even if the president and his more hateful critics aren’t, the rest of us can be mannerly and gallant. Even if we can’t necessarily be genial in all circumstances.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders takes a lot of abuse in the media. Some of it for good reason, some of it not. We can’t imagine why anybody would take a job knowing that Saturday Night Live will make fun of your accent, demeanor and ability for the nation’s entertainment every seven days.

But this little foofaraw could have been much worse, if not for the ladies involved. Especially one lady. She used to live around here. She’s of the Arkansas Huckabees.