Political views. Most of us have some form of inherited or self-determined views regarding domestic politics, economics, foreign affairs and social issues. However, we are merely a people of little influence: we are not CEOs of organizations or heads of school boards. The people of influence, whether their authority is grand in scope or constrained to a community, have their own personalized political beliefs, too. Whether these beliefs are the same or different from ours makes no difference, so long as such beliefs stay out of organizations, schools, or businesses that are run by people of influence. But what happens when political affiliation mixes with an establishment? Is it a benefit or a detriment? Who is affected? What does it say about that organization?

All too often we as consumers hear or read about organizations taking a political stance. Many of these political issues are social or economic in nature and greatly affect public opinion about a particular company or organization. They affect consumer behaviors and the preconceived notions the general public has about the products or services or a certain company.

But how far reaching are these public political stances? Most people aren’t aware of the extent to which their favorite companies play partisan politics, according to Kate Coyne-McCoy, executive director of Coalition for Accountability in Political Spending (CAPS), a bipartisan organization dedicated to curbing the role of corporate spending in elections. What’s more, public companies aren’t obligated to disclose their political spending. “Soon America will be inundated with TV ads that will be nasty and vitriolic,” she said. “We won’t know who’s paying for what. It’s like campaigns are auctions, not elections, and we won’t know which politicians are being bought by what company.”

However, until the day that happens, officials, companies and organizations will continue to publicly express political beliefs on behalf of the organizations they run. But who is ultimately affected by such a public stance? The answer is both consumers and companies. Depending on location and consumer demographics, company announcements that are political in nature can push and pull buyers toward or away from them. This column’s intention is not to reprimand or praise a conservative or leftist political stance; its intention is to evaluate the great risk that a public political stance holds within organizations in general. Take the Boy Scouts’ conservative views or Nabisco’s liberal views for example. For each of these organizations, making their political views publicly known is entirely unnecessary. It only isolates and ultimately ostracizes roughly half of its consumers, customers or members. An organization taking a political stance may seem brave and defiant, but it can only harm a customer base and cause internal conflicts, as is very apparent with the Boy Scouts and Nabisco.

The only thing that taking a political stance says about an organization is how oblivious it is to the fact that it is pushing away much of its consumer base, the same group of people that made that organization the successful consumer hot spot it is today. An organization taking such a stance is risking its financial stability, public image and ultimately its future. For these precise reasons, it is not smart of any establishment to take a political side, whether it is the Boy Scouts and Nabisco, or a local school board.

Despite the desire of many companies to publicly disclose political views, others have restrained themselves, until recently. Even representatives of companies that prefer to stay out of the political arena feel so passionately about an issue that they throw their opinion into the public sphere. Take Google, for instance. While the company has long been politically active on policy issues that involve technology and information access, it was mostly quiet on social issues until 2008, when co-founder and then president Sergey Brin came out in a blog post against California’s Proposition 8, which stipulated that only marriages between a man and woman would be recognized in the state.

Despite efforts to increase profits and consumers, the general trend all across the country among companies seems to be toward taking a political stance, even if it means taking an economic risk.

Omeed Malek is a front page editor for the HiLite. The views in this column do not necessarily reflect the views of the HiLite staff. Reach him at [email protected].