Deeply held beliefs don’t give anyone the right to discriminate

I read with interest Mr. Hoy’s commentary on Dec. 4 regarding how the news media and “liberals” lost middle America’s vote because of their intolerance of others’ views (“Democrats and the news media don’t want to learn anything from the election”).

He then goes on to cite that devout Christians are ruined financially because of their deeply held beliefs, but doesn’t cite even one example of financial ruin. Not one example!

Most importantly, the gist of the opinion was that people with deeply felt beliefs should have the right to act upon them. In general, I would agree with that premise. Where Mr. Hoy’s reasoning breaks down, however, is when those beliefs impinge on the rights of others in our society. Example: There was a time when store owners had the deep belief that lunch counters should be segregated. They acted on that belief and quickly found that that is unconstitutional. I have faith that Mr. Hoy does not want our society to go back to those days.

No, the reason the Democrats lost the election is due to: 1. a flawed Electoral College system and 2. more importantly, they abandoned representing the working class, especially in the Rust Belt.

This story was originally published December 10, 2016 at 8:38 PM with the headline "Deeply held beliefs don’t give anyone the right to discriminate."