Of course the Missouri State Fair can do what it wants, but the lifetime ban seems excessive. Any president comes in for a fair amount of public mockery, and what happened at the State Fair does not seem worse than the mockery of the president that occurred — without consequences like lifetime bans — during George W. Bush’s years in the White House. It’s not necessary to recite all the insults, threats, and other offenses directed at Bush during his presidency; if you were awake during those years, you know there were a lot of them. But perhaps it would be useful to list a few, and ask whether they resulted in punishment and professional exile for those involved.
Look, I have no problem with the state fair deciding that they'd rather not have that clown perform for them again.
But after all the BDS rage directed at the last president, I have trouble working up a good outrage over the clown. Back then a ban would have been portrayed as McCarthyism directed against a brave artist speaking truth to power.
Tip to Instapundit.
UPDATE: Hey! You know when it is okay for rodeo clowns to mock the president? When the president is George W. Bush. Tip to Instapundit.
Again, I think it was rude to mock our president that way. On the other hand, the president is a citizen like any other and not a monarch. He should not be immune to mockery. He may not be amused, but we can be.
I have little respect for our president. But the office of the presidency requires a certain minimum of respect that should restrict criticism and mockery within some bounds that exclude crudeness and death threats. I don't pretend to know where those boundaries are.
But a lifetime ban for work at that state fair seems a bit much.
And the outrage of the left is definitely too much considering what was acceptably in bounds in our recent past.
