One of the popular pages on the Washington Post website this weekend is a story on the placement of "gay pride" rainbow flags on the homes of people around Vice President-Elect Mike Pence's rental home in the Maryland suburb of Chevy Chase. The headline was "In Mr. Pence’s new D.C. neighborhood, not exactly the welcome wagon."
Pence might have chosen a less Democratic neighborhood to rent in, but D.C. is hopeless and the closest cities to D.C. in Virginia are also pretty dark blue. To Posties, that means Pence is surrounded by "progressive" passion, but this wouldn't be half as amusing if all of say, Hillary Clinton's DC neighbors put out Trump flags. Reporter Ian Shapira -- last memorably seen reporting fake news about Miley Cyrus "spontaneously" campaigning for Hillary on campus -- wisecracked the liberal protest was making a suburb "great again":
When news filtered out in late November that Vice President-elect Mike Pence was temporarily moving into the white colonial with green shutters on Tennyson Street NW — in the heart of Chevy Chase, a liberal Democratic stronghold — neighbors decided to greet the Republican interloper with polite protest: rainbow flags flapping from their homes.
It was time to Make Chevy Chase Great Again.
Now this isn’t San Francisco, South Beach or Provincetown. Most of the homeowners who ran out to buy the flags or ordered them online are straight.
But in this neighborhood of oak trees and single-family homes, where 85 percent voted for Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine and just 9 percent cast ballots for Donald Trump and Mike Pence, residents wanted to make clear where they stand.
The owners of the rental house are apparently overseas, and the Pences will only be there for a couple of months, until the Inauguration. The neighboring lefties don't think the flags are too "in-your-face." The Huffington Post came closer to the spirit: "Mike Pence’s Neighbors Are Trolling Him With Rainbow Flags."
“I thought it would send a message in an appropriate way. One idea was to put a ‘Chevy Chase ❤ Hillary’ banner, but we thought that would be too in-your-face,” said Joanna Pratt, 66, an environmental consultant who came up with the idea and lives across the street from Pence.
Now, at least seven homes on the street boast the flags — a response to Pence’s opposition over the years to equal rights for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community....
Pratt actually typed up a letter to the Pences and slipped it through their front door.
“Dear Governor Pence and Mrs. Pence: On behalf of your new neighbors . . . we would like to welcome you to the neighborhood! Obviously, your schedule is very busy, but if you had an hour to spare sometime, we would love to host a get-together with some of your new neighbors.”
But Pratt didn’t shy away from explaining why they wanted to meet.
“It won’t come as any surprise to you that many of your neighbors (including ourselves) have political views that are very different from your own. Nevertheless, we acknowledge the results of the election and would like to use this opportunity to set an example of how people with diverse views can still show respect for one another, especially by listening to each other.” [Italics his.]
How much "listening" do the gay-pride flags demonstrate? Would it "make Chevy Chase great again" for Pence, an evangelical Christian, to respond with a banner of a Bible verse about the sin of homosexuality? Liberals aren't just demanding "equal rights" for the LGBT citizens, but equal respect for their sexual preferences.
It's not like Pence, after 12 years in Congress, was unaware of the liberal politics of the innermost D.C. suburbs. It's not a news flash.
