COMMENTARY | I never cared too much for double mocha grande lattes, but Starbucks Corp. CEO Howard Schultz is quickly making me a fan of their corporate policy. In the spirit of teamwork. Schultz has announced an initiative to withhold all campaign contributions until Congress and the president agree on a long-term debt and deficit plan. There was an immediate show of support, with over 100 businesses signing on to withhold contributions, according to Yahoo! News.
Signers include representatives and CEOs from JC Penney, the NYSE, Whole Foods, AOL, and billionaire investor Pete Peterson. Schultz issued an internal memo earlier this month expressing his concerns over our government’s lack of cooperation. It has been only 10 days since Schultz issued the campaign donation boycott pledge Aug. 15, but it has already triggered a groundswell of support from citizens and corporations alike.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Schultz has donated approximately $100,000 over the past 15 years, almost all of it to Democratic candidates and committees. Since corporate CEOs are known for their capitalist tendencies, cooperation among the different companies shows a real propensity for bipartisan action.
This initiative is the kind of idea that gets thrown around often at barber shops and family gatherings but is rarely seen enacted by business leaders. I liken it to a tree that has grown so big it threatens to blot out the sun, but is now being starved of its food source. It is clear to anyone who isn’t nailed to the ground on one side of the party line or the other that Democrats and Republicans are the North and South of the new millennium. They disagree just to keep from agreeing and deprive our country of any substantial progress just because the other party might derive some credit for it.
My chief concern with overwhelming support of this initiative is the campaign promises that could potentially be made to less than ethical donors who will no doubt fill the void left by traditional donors affiliated with corporations. I don’t believe that either party will budge, even if campaign funding slows to a trickle. There will always be special interest groups and individuals who lack the moral compass of Schultz that would love to take advantage of the situation.
To take it one step further, I would like to see all the donors who pledge to boycott political contributions donate the money that is earmarked for donation to a fund that will be used to pay off our debt. Our national debt has become such an overbearing problem that running on the platform of donating your campaign contributions to the IRS could possibly get you elected president. To be frank, the debt is just a massive elephant in the room; and this elephant is in a blood feud with jackasses.