Miles's blog

It is almost lunch time and I was thinking about grabbing some fast food.  The choices in St. Augustine are similar to those in most areas of the country: the usual burger places, Panera, Subway, KFC; basically everything except Chipotle (a major deficiency).  One of my options is Chik-fil-A, but I am reluctant to go there, despite a recommendation that the food is good.  Maybe it is, I have not been to one of those places for a long time, but now I feel that I cannot patronize Chik-fil-A (for reasons other than the stupid name). 

The chief executive of Chik-fil-A has expressed his opposition to gay marriage, saying such an act invites “God’s judgment.” This, understandably, riled up gay rights organizations who planned and participated in some sort of demonstration last week at the chain. However, Chik-fil-A’s expressed policy to operate on “biblically-based principles” has drawn support of erstwhile presidential candidate and current media pundit Mike Huckabee.  His day of support last Wednesday apparently drew record crowds to the chicken seller. 

Now, I fear that going to Chik-fil-A, even for a simple chicken sandwich, is taking a stand on gay marriage in particular and “biblically-based principles” in general.  (I am curious what “biblically-based principles” are, aside from being closed on Sundays.  Do they support having their CEO lose a limb of one if their workers gets disabled in a workplace accident, for example?)  I do not want to pay money to a restaurant which would turn around and use it to support politicians and initiatives with which I disagree. 

I hate that such considerations go into so mundane an activity as buying lunch at a fast food place.  I mean, I don’t keep track of the politics and positions of the owners of every operation I want to do business with.  The Colorado Rockies are owned by the Monfort brothers. I think they support Republican candidates, but I am not sure.  Should this make a difference?  They also support charities like the Kempe Center and Special Olympics.  Do I need to weigh the relative merit of these activities before I buy a ticket?  I don’t think so.

How about Wal-Mart?  The Walton family contributes a lot of money to Republican causes.  Does that mean I should avoid them and go to Target because I have no idea who gets my money if I shop there?  I don’t think so.  We just have to keep these considerations separate most of the time.

I used to hate it when I first came to Colorado and the labor unions were stridently opposed to Coors Beer.  In those days Coors had a cachet on the East Coast where it was unavailable, and one of the benefits of moving west, I thought, was living in the home of the fabled brew.  I have no great love for labor unions, but I did not like to think that buying a case of Coors was seen as union-busting, while changing my mind and picking up some Bud was support for the right-wing Coors family politics.  This problem was resolved when, after a few months, I realized there is nothing special about Coors, and I could make my beer purchases based on consideration outside labor relations.

Every day we all make lots of choices about what we are going to buy.  Most of the time we don’t even know who is getting our money, much less  whether they support higher taxes, abortion rights, or the work of the EPA.  And we don’t care.  The money we spend on practically everything will ultimately end up in the hands of those who own the means of production, in other words the One Percent.  Whine if you will about the excess of money in political campaigns, but pretty much whatever you buy will end up going to those whose wealth far exceeds yours and which might very well fuel a Super PAC to elect some guy you would not vote for for dog catcher. 

There are exceptions.  I found out in the 1980s that the Imperial Palace Hotel in Las Vegas was owned by a neo-Nazi who celebrated Hitler’s birthday. I am not sure this was really true as I read it in the National Enquirer, but I came to believe it, so I stopped going there.  (I see that he died in 2002 and the hotel is now owned by the Caesar’s Palace people, so I guess I can go back.)  Something that extreme I think did require a boycott, at least by Jews.  I fear Chik-fil-A has now fallen into the same category, not so much because I want to keep money out of the hands of those who run it, although I do, but because the media will now use their profits as a scoreboard of support.  (See this Smart Money article.)  I do not want to publicly support the mean-spirited position of those who run Chick-fil-A.  Does anyone know the politics of Wendy Thomas?