By now, most of you have probably heard of the “outrage” over the stage at this year’s recently concluded Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) resembling an old Nordic rune that the Nazis used a version of as some kind of symbol.
Of course, representatives for CPAC said that conservatives would intentionally use Nazi symbolism. But we’ve all heard that part of the story so far.
The part that hasn’t received as much attention is the company that designed the stage in question, Maryland-based company Design Foundry.
According to Business Insider Australia, Design Foundry released a statement saying that the company was “saddened and horrified at the accusations that this was a deliberate act.”
“Design Foundry denounces all hate speech and acts of racism, prejudice, or bigotry in all forms,” the statement also read.
While the company also reportedly said in the statement that CPAC organizers chose from multiple stage design options provided to them, Design Foundry’s previous work for news outlets like MSNBC and some Design Foundry employees’ political contribution have garnered some attention.
The Forward noted MSNBC among other companies that Design Foundry has done work for, including Google, Target and Citibank.
And while the company itself didn’t make the donations itself, multiple employees of Design Foundry have made political donations to multiple Democrat charities, as well as the campaigns of the last two Democratic presidential nominees.
I’m not naming any names here, but according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) public records for individual contributions, only one right-of-center organization received donations from a single Design Foundry employee totaling $40.
However, dozens of donations were made to ActBlue, a left-leaning small-dollar donation organization for “Democratic candidates up and down the ballot, progressive organizations, and nonprofits.”
Also among the recipients of political contributions were “Biden for President,” the “Biden Victory Fund,” “Hillary for America,” the “Hillary Victory Fund” and the far-left activist organization MoveOn.org.
It’s the employees’ right to donate to whatever organization they please, but it raises some concern over the motivations behind the stage design in question that was provided and approved by CPAC officials.