Fast Food Politics: Chains That Don't Support Conservative Ideals
from the HUFFINGTON POST: Fast Food Politics: Chains That Don't Support Conservative Ideals
According to campaign finance reports, most fast-food restaurants have a
PAC, and overwhelmingly those committees donate to Republicans. In the
interest of an informed electorate voting with their dollars, here are five fast-food restaurants that support liberal causes.
Popeye's Chicken
John Goodman makes a great Col. Sanders
eager to cash in on Chick-fil-A's homophobia in Funny or Die videos. But in truth KFC-owned Yum! Brand's gave 81 percent of their donations
to conservatives in 2012. If you want a business that truly shows no
sign of being ideologically opposed to your gay chicken money, go to
Popeye's. While the company doesn't have a PAC to track, company chair
John M. Cranor III donates to Democrat politicians in his home state of
Florida. He also serves on the board of the National Stem Cell
Foundation, with the shockingly reasonable mission to fund, promote and
support research. That puts him in opposition to Republican veep nominee
Paul Ryan who's voted against promoting stem cell research four times
in the House. Plus, they're open on Sunday.
Dairy Queen
Warren
Buffet's Berskshire Hathaway acquired DQ in 1998. The Oracle of Omaha
backed Barack Obama in his first run and has supported higher taxes on
the one percent, of whom he is certainly a member.
Checkers
Seemingly concerned normal fast-food provided too
many frills, Checkers boiled the model down to the basics of two
drive-through windows, late hours, and fat, greasy burgers. The company
that owns them, Wellspring Capital, doesn't have a PAC but founding
managing partner Greg S. Feldman contributes to Democrats Dianne
Feinstein and Clyde Williams.
Panera Bread
The only restaurant on this list without a pick-up window, Panera Bread
is still as much a fast-food place as anyone, albeit one where you can
convincingly tell yourself the food is, if not healthy, at least further
from horrible than a greasy spoon. Save yourself calories with the
black bean soup and political guilt knowing that the company's founder
and CEO Ronald M. Schaich has given $30,000 to the DNC and $5,000 to
Barack Obama this election cycle
Starbucks
The Seattle bean roasters have done well by progressive causes. They
have fair trade products, a National Recycling Coalition Recycling Works
Award for advances in food packaging, and they give out used grounds
for composting upon request. For a while, CEO Howard Schultz was happy
to pass some of the profits along to Democrats through the company's PAC
and personal contributions to Barack Obama. Then in 2011, he issued a
statement that he'd stop contributing to any politician long as they
chose "to put partisan and ideological purity over the well-being of the
people." Schultz finished his call to close checkbooks with a statement
any reasonable person should agree with when looking to Washington D.C.
over the last few years: "Our country is better than this."
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