Now the Left Has a Martyr Like Kim Davis
The order over which Sally Yates was fired was wrong, but not indefensible.
Photographer: Alex Wong/Getty ImagesOver the weekend, when I was on a birthday-induced news fast, President Donald Trump’s executive order on migrants from seven Middle Eastern countries turned into a fiasco in that sweet spot where incompetence and malevolence overlap. I missed most of the general frenzy. But I certainly didn’t miss the turmoil that ensued on Monday, when Acting Attorney General Sally Yates issued a letter ordering the Department of Justice not to defend the order. And then Trump, quite predictably, fired her. That is, after all, what he’s famous for.
This martyrdom was very well received by people who opposed the order. Paeans were written to the duty of public officials to stand up against illegal and immoral orders from above. Comparisons were made to the Saturday Night Massacre, in which a series of officials were ordered to fire the special prosecutor investigating President Nixon. It looks to me much less heroic: The left finally has its very own Kim Davis.