Photo courtesy Pixabay.

It wasn’t long ago conservatives railed against cancel culture. Now, a Republican leader would rather put a small business under than tolerate an opposing point of view.

U.S. Rep. Greg Steube, R-Sarasota, startled many with a social media post urging conservatives to boycott Stottlemyer’s Smokehouse. It wasn’t overcooked meat that turned his stomach but campaign signs in front of the restaurant promoting School Board member Tom Edwards and School Board candidate Liz Barker.

“Calling all conservatives, no more @StottlemyersBBQ,” he posted. “Can’t have our money going to support liberals! Guess it’s Mission BBQ and Roger’s Market for gas!”

Steube has the right to choose mediocre chain barbeque if he chooses (at least Mission carries a mustard sauce). But it’s more than startling when political leaders encourage others to punish entrepreneurs over voting habits. This may even leave a voter who didn’t support Steube in the last election concerned where to turn to if they need a passport expedited.

Edwards called the post “deliberately divisive.” “Our community is tired of this angry rhetoric, with I’m on this side and your on that and we’ll fight to the death,” he said. “Why not have us sit down and find solutions to free lunch for students in Sarasota County?”

Yet this feels utterly predictable. A sad facet of human nature is many who fight against censorship of their point of view care little when the other side is silenced; they may cheer it.

That never felt so baked into public discourse as during the unmissable hypocrisy decrying speech suppression while preaching “go woke, go broke.” People denouncing the deplatforming of extremists now pull largely benign books from school shelves.

Three years ago, Steube filed federal legislation to hold Big Tech responsible for censoring certain points of view.

“The American people should all demand equal treatment, especially in the public square,” Steube said then. “Our country’s founding and entire system of government prides itself on our ability for citizens to have different views without being suppressed or censored.”

The cause of protecting extreme points of view online seemed dampened once Elon Must bought X and restored it as a home to crazed nationalists and conspiracy weavers. All’s good with Big Tech, I guess. Barbeque, though, may be a different story.

I, for one, can’t imagine walking away from a restaurant serving smoked ribs for any reason, so maybe my convictions aren’t the best test.

But from my work talking politics with folks of all walks of life is that restaurateurs as a rule, like most small business owners, skew Republican. Maybe Sarasota smokehouse are the exception. But on a whole, I’d guess liberals who boycott every restaurant whose owners vote another way will need to cook a lot of meals at home.

One could certainly argue conservatives choosing a different smoke pit hardly constitutes censorship. But it’s as much cancellation as liberals refusing to watch a Vince Vaughn or Jon Voight movie. What’s strange is just a few years ago, when Steube and many conservatives vocally opposed vaccine mandates and other policies, the Republican Congressman stood up for a business with a differing point of view.

A restaurant known for hosting events encouraged vaccinated employees to wear pins denoting their status, irritating certain political groups who felt no conservative should speak at a restaurant with such a policy.

Steube spoke there anyway, saying he disagreed with the policy, but that being a conservative meant allowing businesses to run shop as they see fit. He was correct. You wouldn’t expect anyone arguing against over-regulation saddling a company with a philosophical purity test.

Voters choose elected officials based on philosophy but dining establishment based on flavor. Fortunately, most people understand that. I reached out to Stottlemyer’s for comment, but management declined. Someone answering the phone said owner’s “were aware” of Steube’s post. But a day after Steube’s post, the restaurant was too busy to talk politics.

Jacob Ogles is contributing senior editor for SRQ MEDIA. 

Photo courtesy Pixabay.