Yesterday, someone unsubscribed from our monthly email newsletter. That happens sometimes, and I’ve learned long ago not to take it personally. However, this person gave the following explanation: “You made it known that you hated Hillary Clinton when she first ran for president. I am a democrat and found that that was an uncalled for acknowledgement of your political choices.”

Huh?

First of all, that’s simply not true. Also, that was eight years ago, and you’ve only just now decided to unsubscribe from our newsletter? Wow!

Attempting Apoliticality

From our earliest days, we have tried very hard to keep our personal politics out of our business. Being located 30 miles outside of downtown Chicago, we are in an area where a wide range of political views are held, and we didn’t want to alienate potential customers before they even learned about our company and what we make. Until the last couple of election cycles, most of the elected officials in our area were Republicans, typically moderate ones (which don’t really seem to exist much anymore?). Then, as the local Republicans moved to the right, a blue wave swept through. Now, many of the offices are held by Democrats. Both sides lobby vigorously and campaign aggressively to improve their position each election.

We are a small business, and we want to stay in business. So in most cases, if you want to pay us to host your event in our tasting room and to spend money with us, we’ll do it. Over the years, we have hosted many events for Democrats, Republicans and Libertarians. We have also hosted many clubs, organizations and charities, and even a local Free Mason group once (who would go completely silent when we would pop our head in to see if they needed anything).

We train our staff to make sure each and every guest feels welcome in our tasting room, and that everyone is welcome here. We ask our team to let us know if ever an instance were to arise where a guest was making the employee, or another guest, uncomfortable for any reason. We have incredibly wonderful customers, and that type of thing doesn’t ever really happen — we are grateful for that fact. We aim to bring that welcoming spirit to everything we do and every event we host or participate in, viewing each as an opportunity to showcase our art in the form of spirits and cocktails.

So, Back to the Huh?

So we were a bit surprised when we saw the note with the unsubscribe request. We have never endeavored to make our personal political views part of our business. Upon reflection, I suspect this person’s statement is tied to a promotional title that a local Republican group used for an event they held here in 2016 — “Beat Hillary at the Distillery.” The facts are that we hosted the local Republican party for a fundraising event, similar to how we had hosted the local Democrats on a different day that election season. We did not support, advertise or endorse their event or its name, and did not even know what they were calling it until the day of the event. We charged them the same pricing as we charged anyone for any event at that time. We also did not support, advertise or endorse any other political event we hosted.

Do Nothing, or…

In these extremely polarized times, I don’t think there is any point in responding to the person who unsubscribed. Undoubtedly, I would not change their mind on what they think they know, and it might expand into a larger hulabaloo (such a good word). Not worth it.

Yet, I am left pondering the situation. Is it still advisable, and is it possible, to keep your personal politics out of your small business? When someone has the wrong impression of you, is it worth correcting it? While we almost never discuss politics in our business, when it happens we often hear perspectives that align with our own, but not always. We recognize that some of our customers would not vote the same way as us, just like they may or may not like the same spirit or cocktail as us. Heck, Derek and I do not agree amongst ourselves on certain issues — we agree on most of the big ones, but not everything. The ways we are different is part of what makes the world a beautiful place. When it comes to politics, we would advocate first and foremost for each of us to be informed, think critically, and actually vote and participate in the process. Is that enough in these times? Hmmm.