YR CHICKEN SANDWICH IS POLITICAL
Jul. 27th, 2012 01:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
defrogOr, “Absolutely Positively My Only Post About Dan Cathy and Chick-Fil-A”.
So. Chick-Fil-A president Dan Cathy does not like the gay peoples, and feels strongly enough about it that he’ll go on record in public and talk about how much he does not like the gay peoples.
My take on this is no different from similar incidents where CEOs decide to publicly take sides on emotional wedge issues like gay marriage and gay rights in general. Which is this:
Dan Cathy has the right to believe what he wants and say what he wants. He also has the right to run his company in a manner consistent with his religious and political beliefs (as long as it’s also consistent with things like employment and discrimination regulations).
By the same token, Chick-Fil-A’s customers and business partners have the right to not to business with him because of said beliefs (despite what some conservative pundits may think).
That’s how this works in a free-market society: if you want to run yr business in a way that potentially alienates customers and business partners, you get to do that. And if yr business slumps or fails as a result, well suck it up, Buttercup.
Not that I think that will necessarily happen to Chick-Fil-A. It probably depends on how much of Chick-Fil-A’s customer base was liberal and/or gay and/or politically aware to begin with, but I’m sure there’s more than enough conservative Christians to make up the shortfall (especially now that Chick-Fil-A is no longer offering kids’ toys that promote Communism). When you consider that the companies that launched blatantly conservative ice cream and condiments are still in business, I’d say Chick-Fil-A will probably survive as well.
Admittedly it’s not looking too good for Chick-Fil-A in Boston and Chicago at the moment. However, I don't think Emmanuel Rahm and Thomas Menino will actually do anything to keep Chick-Fil-A outside the city limits. And that's probably a good thing – I’m pretty sure it’s not a good idea to be setting a precedent where government officials pressure or ban businesses from setting up shop in their city/state over political differences, if only because that cuts both ways.
Also, banning Chick-Fil-A restaurants, or closing them down, wouldn’t really solve anything – in the sense that it wouldn’t convince Dan Cathy (or any of his supporters) to support gay marriage and gay rights. At best you’d have one less fast-food franchise in operation.
All that said, though, I think it’s silly for people to portray Chick-Fil-A and Dan Cathy as the victim in all this. People make consumer decisions based on political issues all the time (to include conservatives, I might add). Cathy’s the one who decided to put his political/religious beliefs at the center of his business. If his political beliefs end up hurting his business, he’s got no one to blame but himself.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I’ve eaten at Chick-Fil-A only once in my life. Possibly twice. I may have eaten at the one near Carbondale in the early 90s, but that was 20 years ago, so I don’t remember for sure. I definitely visited the one in Maryville-Alcoa, TN around four or five years ago, before their president’s political opinions became a Facebook meme.
In any case, I wasn’t all that impressed with their chicken sandwich. So it’s a bit disingenuous for me to boycott a business I had no plans to revisit on future trips to the US, is what I'm saying.
Taking my business elsewhere,
This is dF
So. Chick-Fil-A president Dan Cathy does not like the gay peoples, and feels strongly enough about it that he’ll go on record in public and talk about how much he does not like the gay peoples.
My take on this is no different from similar incidents where CEOs decide to publicly take sides on emotional wedge issues like gay marriage and gay rights in general. Which is this:
Dan Cathy has the right to believe what he wants and say what he wants. He also has the right to run his company in a manner consistent with his religious and political beliefs (as long as it’s also consistent with things like employment and discrimination regulations).
By the same token, Chick-Fil-A’s customers and business partners have the right to not to business with him because of said beliefs (despite what some conservative pundits may think).
That’s how this works in a free-market society: if you want to run yr business in a way that potentially alienates customers and business partners, you get to do that. And if yr business slumps or fails as a result, well suck it up, Buttercup.
Not that I think that will necessarily happen to Chick-Fil-A. It probably depends on how much of Chick-Fil-A’s customer base was liberal and/or gay and/or politically aware to begin with, but I’m sure there’s more than enough conservative Christians to make up the shortfall (especially now that Chick-Fil-A is no longer offering kids’ toys that promote Communism). When you consider that the companies that launched blatantly conservative ice cream and condiments are still in business, I’d say Chick-Fil-A will probably survive as well.
Admittedly it’s not looking too good for Chick-Fil-A in Boston and Chicago at the moment. However, I don't think Emmanuel Rahm and Thomas Menino will actually do anything to keep Chick-Fil-A outside the city limits. And that's probably a good thing – I’m pretty sure it’s not a good idea to be setting a precedent where government officials pressure or ban businesses from setting up shop in their city/state over political differences, if only because that cuts both ways.
Also, banning Chick-Fil-A restaurants, or closing them down, wouldn’t really solve anything – in the sense that it wouldn’t convince Dan Cathy (or any of his supporters) to support gay marriage and gay rights. At best you’d have one less fast-food franchise in operation.
All that said, though, I think it’s silly for people to portray Chick-Fil-A and Dan Cathy as the victim in all this. People make consumer decisions based on political issues all the time (to include conservatives, I might add). Cathy’s the one who decided to put his political/religious beliefs at the center of his business. If his political beliefs end up hurting his business, he’s got no one to blame but himself.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I’ve eaten at Chick-Fil-A only once in my life. Possibly twice. I may have eaten at the one near Carbondale in the early 90s, but that was 20 years ago, so I don’t remember for sure. I definitely visited the one in Maryville-Alcoa, TN around four or five years ago, before their president’s political opinions became a Facebook meme.
In any case, I wasn’t all that impressed with their chicken sandwich. So it’s a bit disingenuous for me to boycott a business I had no plans to revisit on future trips to the US, is what I'm saying.
Taking my business elsewhere,
This is dF
