My faith in politics and politicians was never that strong. And with the last election, my faith in the American electorate sunk to historic lows as well so I have been avoiding as much Trump talk as I can because it seems futile to not only struggle against Washington DC but the 306 Electoral College votes as well.
Throwing craft beer into the mix seems like a plan that could turn out bad. Seems too partisan for actual nuanced discussion.
But others are taking a different tack and not surprisingly Keep Portland Weird has taken a stand with….
The stated mission of Beer Party PDX is to “Organize members of the PDX beer community to effectively protect and promote basic civil rights, including voter access, freedom of speech, and equal rights.”
Members of the craft beer community have already stood up against one of the many questionable cabinet secretary choices (Scott Pruitt for the EPA) so this may be the start of more organizations that have both beer and what I would call common decency in common.
I think breweries do need to stand for agenda items like clean water and small business help and local issues like potholes on the road outside your establishment. Protecting people who are your customers seem like a smart play to me as well. Whether people will agree or boycott when you take a stand on action items that don’t have direct links to beer or the beer business is another thing though. Along with the attacks on journalism there is an even stronger, “stay in your lane” brew beer not dissent camp in the U.S. now.
But with Trump approval ratings cratering fast, going Anti sooner, rather than later, could be the smart business now (if you are located in liberal country) and later (when more disturbing leaks are revealed).