The folks at Ben & Jerry's have come up with a new way to let you indulge yourself while giving democracy a little boost.
Here's the scoop: The Vermont-based company, never one to shy from activism, has been stepping it up in recent months. This week, the force behind Cherry Garcia and Totally Baked unveiled Empower Mint, its latest flavor and part of a campaign to encourage voting and fight back against undue financial influence in elections and laws that make voting more difficult.
"This fudge-filled flavor reflects our belief that voting gives everyone a taste of empowerment, and that an election should be more 'by the people' and less 'buy the people,'" the company said on its website. "We all deserve an equal serving of democracy."
Ben & Jerry's announced its new flavor on Tuesday, the 62nd anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling ending public-school segregation in the landmark case Brown vs. Board of Education.
The new peppermint ice cream packs fudge brownies and fudge swirls, and "as you dig your way through a pint of Empower Mint, we know you'll be hunting for the fudge brownie chunks and following the fudgy swirls," the company said. "It happens, we get it. And just like every chunk in that pint matters, every voice in our country matters."
The company's Democracy Is In Your Hands campaign also urges fans to sign a petition reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act. In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court nixed a part of the Act that prohibited states with histories of racial discrimination -- like Texas -- from altering their voting process without getting federal permission. (Texas' new voter ID requirement law is now being contested in court.)
Ben & Jerry's says it is giving a portion of proceeds to North Carolina's NAACP organization, which is involved in efforts to combat that state's new voting law, seen as one of the nation's most restrictive.
"If Empower Mint leaves you with anything, we hope it's this," the company said. "Your voice, and the voices of all Americans, are absolutely vital to a functioning democracy -- one that serves everyone, not just a few bigwigs at the top."
