Lin Manuel Miranda and the producers of his hit show ‘Hamilton’ are throwing away their shot to light up the stage at the Kennedy Center in protest over the Trump administration replacing the failed leadership at the far-left institution.
The cancelation is just another example of the progressive elites in our nation insisting that we are living through some political emergency that must occupy our entire lives and impact every decision we make.
We saw this attitude of existential crisis from Democrats in Congress this week with their childish displays during President Donald Trump’s joint address, in which lefty lawmakers refused to stand or applaud for a childhood cancer survivor because … Trump.
Meanwhile, at Columbia University, pro-terrorist protests are erupting again, taking over libraries, because the political emergencies of our time make the mere act of simple studying an unacceptable luxury.
For the perpetually outraged Left, it all boils down to one message: ‘This is not normal.’ They claim Trump is such a danger that we must, with every waking hour and breath, acknowledge and confront that fact.
But here’s the thing, and I hear it everywhere I go, from Texas to West Virginia, from California to Wisconsin: People want normalcy back. They want to be able to talk to their family and friends on the other political side, they want to enjoy a beer without engaging in the culture war.
By and large, the people standing in the way of a return to normalcy today are those on the Left, and Miranda’s hare-brained scheme to close his own show is a perfect example.
Let’s imagine for a moment that Richard Grenell, Trump’s new president of the Kennedy Center, decided to cancel ‘Hamilton,’ in which the founding fathers are played by people of color, and replace it with the 1970s hit ‘1776,’ with an all-White cast.
All bloody hell would break loose, and rightfully so. But that didn’t happen, and would never happen, because like most conservatives, Grenell has no interest in censorship.
Miranda and his ilk are laughably claiming they are protesting political bias in the leadership shakeup, as if the ideological makeup of the Kennedy Center hasn’t been somewhere to the left of Chairman Mao for decades.
Long story short, the Trump administration is not censoring Miranda, Miranda is censoring Miranda.
Now, it will be argued that Trump himself is not exactly courting national unity with his breakneck executive orders, mass firings of public employees and moves like the Kennedy Center shakeup itself, but there is a key distinction: Trump’s actions are political, not social.
The president has always played by mafia rules. If you are in the game, you are a fair target, but he doesn’t attack regular folks. Trump rarely, if ever, demeans those who didn’t vote for him, perhaps in part because he doubts they even exist.
It isn’t normal to refuse to perform a play, or refuse to politely listen to a speech, or refuse to allow fellow students to do their work. It’s downright abnormal.
What Miranda is doing by canceling ‘Hamilton,’ what Democrats in Congress did with their ridiculous antics during Trump’s address and what the hoodlums backing Hamas at Columbia have in common is their compulsion to invade your social life if you don’t share their world view. If you are a Trump supporter, they don’t even want to be in a room with you.
In my travels, I have met heartbroken parents whose kids won’t talk to them because of Trump, lifelong friends cast aside. In fact, almost everyone I ask has some such story. And you want to know something? That is what isn’t normal.
It isn’t normal to refuse to perform a play, or refuse to politely listen to a speech, or refuse to allow fellow students to do their work. It’s downright abnormal. Yet again and again, it is the choice that the American Left is making.
Perhaps progressives such as Miranda are rightfully scared that Americans will like the huge changes being wrought by the Trump administration, but can they give it six months to find out? After all, he did win the election.
The good news is that, unlike eight years ago when the widespread fear and disdain towards Trump was so flammable that stunts like canceling ‘Hamilton’ in protest caught the fire of the public imagination, it can now barely light a candle.
The American people don’t want preening histrionics from our elites, they just want dinner and a show without their whole lives having to be about Donald Trump.
But sadly, Miranda and his show will not go on. Instead, he is boycotting the room where it happens, and that is a loss for everyone. A decade ago, ‘Hamilton’ brought the country together. Today it divides us. Fortunately, the American people can see a better way forward, even if Lin Manuel Miranda cannot.