First Avenue fires new general manager for supporting Trump

[T'Chenka]

As stated multiple times in the thread already: Republicans can't have it both ways. You either want worker protections or you don't. Republicans didn't want them / allow them, so now people can get fired for being Trump supporters. This is what you wanted. This is what you voted for. You don't get to whine about it now.

[T'Chenka]

Let's try your theory out.  Let's have private businesses fire all BLM supporters.

Okay, sure.

We can divide all of the restaurants in the city into "they won't hire BLM supporters" and "they hire people whether they support BLM or not". How many people are going to continue going to the restaurants that won't hire BLM supporters? I forsee a lot of restaurants struggling and several closing. Republicans love the free market, but the free market does not love Republicans. Womp womp.

[T'Chenka]

So why is it OK then for an establishment to fire a person solely for supporting Donald Trump on his own time, but not BLM?

Not all people, organizations or political ideologies are equal and they should not all be treated equally. Being anti-democracy is not the same as being anti-socialist and should not be treated as such. Supporting minority rights is not the same as supporting neo-nazis and should not be treated as such. For the record, I do not FIRMLY believe that it should be illegal to fire people for supporting BLM. From a moral perspective I think it's wrong, but I haven't given enough thought to whether or not it should be illegal or not.

BLM is, after all, a political organization with views many would consider extreme.

You have been told 100 times that 99% or more of BLM protestors were not officially associated with the organization known as BLM. You and others like you have also provided ZERO evidence that the statement I just made is wrong. You continue to repeat this talking point, even though people have pointed out 100 times that it isn't true, and you have never been able to explain why it actually is true. This means one of two things... either you are operating in bad faith, or you not only believe something with no evidence that it's true, but expect / demand that other people will take it seriously when you use it for part of your arguments in political debates. Not how real life works.

[T'Chenka]

The statements were not made while he was an employee.  That, to me, is highly relevant.  His position was not a political position, it was not public employment, and it was not a position like, say, law enforcement, where the very appearance of bias is something that can jeopardize one's credibility.

If we want to "go there", how long should it be before this year's Ivy League grads get their first professional job once people find out they were part of the "From the River to the Sea . . ." crowd?  Would it be right to assume the worst of these students and simply not hire them for their issues positions, even in positions that were not political or ideological? 

In a job like being the manager of First Avenue, the manager's politics should have nothing to do with it; only his conduct as an employee should matter. 

It dawns on me here that lots of people who are all in on this would be bent out of shape if a person of color were fired from a job after an old criminal arrest were discovered, even if it were a misdemeanor or a drug felony that was old and the person passed pre-employment drug screening.  Most people here would be upset; they would be going on and on about systemic racism and not wanting to give someone who's changed a chance because of their past.  And I generally agree with that, but you have a Forum full of people that would likely be upset if a person were fired from First Avenue for prior felony, but who are fine with firing this person who has committed no crime at all.

 Republicans are the ones who want at-will hiring and firing to be legal and Republicans are the ones who have voted for it. Democrats generally aren't in favour of that. So we can sit here and talk about who thinks this is fair and who thinks that is unfair, but the only reason this situation even happened at all is because Republicans enacted their poltiical power to make sure that there were not laws to prevent things like this from happening. "Being lawfully fired for supporting Trump" doesn't exist in a world where Democrats write the laws.