Hillsboro voted overwhelmingly for Trump and is also “deeply divided” over certain issues. Some restaurant owners in this adamantly pro-life town believe that liberal Democrats such as President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton support, as they see it, the “inhumane and unethical” practice of abortion, which cannot stand.

Naturally, the precedent set by the Lexington restaurant means that Hillsboro restaurants and others in conservative enclaves are now ethically, if not legally, empowered to kick anyone out — especially a public figure — if they feel compelled to take a stand on principle. Of course, they’d be ridiculed as intolerant rednecks rather than celebrated for their moral fiber, but that’s the different standard we all know and accept.

If Obama or Clinton walked into any restaurant in Hillsboro, they would be treated with respect, even though their politics, lies and defense of the indefensible, as perceived locally, are as loathsome to most people here as Nielsen and Sanders supposedly are to those who forced their exits. No one would shout them out the door, no one would ask them to leave. Instead, they would be asked, “Can I start you off with something to drink?” followed later by, “Can I get you anything else?” with a final invitation to “come back soon.”