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.
