Romney/Ryan voters try to destroy “photo op” soup kitchen – Democrats stop them

Reminiscent of the time repugicans tried to destroy a pizza joint where President Obama got a bear hug from its owner, repugicans have spent the last week harassing, and trying to destroy, a soup kitchen where Paul Ryan held a now-infamous photo opp.Huff Post’s Jason Cherkis reports:

Brian J. Antal, president of the Mahoning County St. Vincent De Paul Society, confirmed that donors have begun an exodus in protest over Ryan’s embarrassment. The monetary losses have been big. “It appears to be a substantial amount,” Antal said. “You can rest assured there has been a substantial backlash.”

Ryan supporters have now targeted Antal and his soup kitchen, Antal said, including making hundreds of angry phone calls. Some members of Antal’s volunteer staff have had to endure the barrage as well, he said. “The sad part is a lot of [the callers] want to hide behind anonymity,” he said, adding that if someone leaves their name and number he has tried to return their call. In addition to phone calls, people have posted a few choice words on the charity’s Facebook wall, including statements like “I hope you lose your tax [sic] emempt status,” Anyone who is thinking about donations to you should think twice” and “Shame on you Brian Antal!”

Thankfully, per Huff Post Hill, Democrats have risen to the challenge and saved the soup kitchen that Romney/Ryan supporters tried to put out of business.

 ”The soup kitchen facing a donor backlash in the wake of Paul Ryan’s embarrassing photo op has been rescued by the internet. The day after HuffPost broke the kitchen’s sad news, Corey Snow of Olympia Washington, organized an online fundraising drive on the charity’s behalf. In about 30 hours, Snow had raised $10,000. By Monday morning, donations had reached more than $12,600. Snow said that he was upset that the most needy would become pawns in presidential politics.‘People are hungry regardless of whether you vote Democrat or repugican,’ he said. ‘I thought it was not cool that they were pulling donations.’ Snow, who has talked with the charity’s director, plans on keeping the campaign going long past the election. He plans on turning in his donations to the soup kitchen by mid December. ‘The election will still be over but people will still be hungry,’ he said. The campaign site link is http://www.indiegogo.com/svdp-soupkitchen. There is also a direct donation site set up by the Mahoning County Society of Saint Vincent de Paul at http://mahoningsvdp.org, and of course the national site at http://svdpusa.org.

It’s really kind of astounding, and speaks volumes to what the repugican cabal has become,
that Romney/Ryan supporters would try to destroy a soup kitchen that feeds the poor and the homeless.