Chickens for Colonel Sanders
{{Short description|Political analogy}}
"Chickens for Colonel Sanders", or "Chickens for KFC", is a political rhetorical analogy which compares the irony of someone supporting a politician, organization, or ideology which contradicts their own beliefs or rights to the idea of chickens supporting American restaurateur Colonel Sanders or his chicken fast food restaurant Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Usage
The phrase "Chickens for Colonel Sanders" has been used by various politicians in different scenarios, such as in 1978 by Canadian politician Steven W. Langdon, NDP candidate for the Ottawa Centre federal electoral district, when comparing the district voting for the Progressive Conservative Party to a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders,{{cite web|url=https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/chicken-hawked/|title=Chicken Votes for Colonel Sanders|website=Snopes|first=Barbara|last=Mikkelson|date=20 July 2008|accessdate=24 November 2024}} and more recently in 2016 by U.S. lawmaker and representative Keith Ellison (D-Minn) using the phrase in comparison to Muslims voting for Donald Trump.{{cite web|url=https://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/281093-top-muslim-lawmaker-muslims-supporting-trump-is-like/|title=Muslim lawmaker: Muslims for Trump is like chickens for Colonel Sanders|website=The Hill|first=Caitlin|last=Yilek|date=24 May 2016|accessdate=24 November 2024}} Commentator Thomas Frank also cited an example of its use as a rhetorical tool of the grassroots conservative movement in the United States in the early 21st century.{{cite book |last1=Frank |first1=Thomas |author1-link=Thomas Frank (political commentator) |title=What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America |date=2004 |publisher=Metropolitan Books |location=New York City |isbn=9780805073393 |page=2 |quote=For you this picture of hard-times conservatism makes perfect sense, and it is the opposite phenomenon—working-class people who insist on voting for liberals—that strikes you as an indecipherable puzzlement. Maybe you see it the way the bumper sticker I spotted at a Kansas City gun show puts it: 'A working person that supports Democrats is like a chicken that supports Col. Sanders!'}}
The similar phrase "Chickens for KFC" has most notably and recently been used in the context of LGBT people supporting the State of Palestine, a country in which LGBT subjects are generally considered taboo,{{cite web|url=https://www.queermajority.com/essays-all/queers-for-palestine-and-the-death-of-irony|title="Queers for Palestine" and the Death of Irony|website=Queer Majority|first=Armin|last=Navabi|date=17 October 2023|accessdate=24 November 2024}} in its ongoing conflict with Israel, parodying the slogan "Gays for Gaza", particularly by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his 2024 Address to U.S. Congress.{{cite web|url=https://mynbc15.com/news/nation-world/netanyahu-likens-gays-for-gaza-to-chickens-for-kfc-in-speech-to-congress-israeli-prime-minister-benjamin-netanyahu-israel-palestine-gaza-washington-dc-anti-israel-protesters|title=Netanyahu likens 'Gays for Gaza' to 'Chickens for KFC' in speech to Congress|website=WPMI|first=Jackson|last=Walker|date=24 July 2024|accessdate=24 November 2024}}
See also
- Turkeys voting for Christmas {{snd}} similar idiom about supporting causes against one's own interests
References
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{{Wiktionary}}
Category:Political catchphrases
Category:Metaphors referring to birds
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