Ah, the boycott. A long and honored tradition in America, and perhaps one of the most effective democratic weapons the public has at its disposal. Boycotts allow us to make big statements to for-profit businesses, entities and persons by voting with our wallets, feet, signs, raised voices and undesired mass presence outside said business establishments, or even residences. Boycotting was a weapon of Prop 8 opponents against supporters in the wake of that measure’s win. The Dixie Chicks were boycotted by many Americans over their “ashamed” remarks about President Bush to a London audience in March 2003.
In essence, what a boycott does is allow segments of the public to say to a for-profit business, person or entity, “What you’re doing sucks! And until it stops sucking, we’re going to make your life suck, too!” If you have any doubts, ask the owner of the El Coyote Restaurant in Los Angeles, who was boycotted relentlessly after it was discovered his daughter donated $100.00 to Prop 8 proponents, and despite the fact El Coyote employees raised $500.00 to help repeal Prop 8. No law saying boycotts have to be reasonable. You just need the numbers to make a real problem for the business. That has most definitely been the case for FOX commentator Glenn Beck and Whole Foods founder and CEO John Mackey this past week.
In the case of Glenn Beck, a staunch conservative and ratings superstar at FOX, his comment that he believed President Obama was being racist himself in his “acting stupidly” remark, directed at Cambridge PD Sgt. James F. Crowley after the Gates arrest, generated a pushback from the Left spearheaded by the organization Color For Change, an African-American advocacy group with close ties to the White House. Color For Change has been leading the fight to pressure advertisers to abandon Beck and FOX. Advertisers that have joined Color For Change in the Beck boycott include Ally Bank, Brinks, CVS, GEICO Insurance, Healthy Choice Foods, Men’s Wearhouse, Sargento Foods and State Farm Insurance.
In the case of Whole Foods founder and CEO John Mackey, a free market Libertarian, his oped in the Wall Street Journal entitled “The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare,” in which he took a distinct stand against the ObamaCare bill, riled up his huge left-leaning customer base which supports the President’s health care bill H.R. 3200, now often referred to as the ObamaCare bill. More than 25,000 people have signed on at Facebook swearing they will never shop at Whole Foods again. Boycott sites are cropping up all over the Internet. The UFCW has also taken a prominent stand against Whole Foods and John Mackey.
Yet boycotts themselves can sometimes backfire. Those two boycotts are now being met with fierce resistance by staunch defenders and supporters of both men, and counter-boycott efforts are even now surging in response. In fact, some of the participants in the Beck boycott are already paying a price for pulling out. 6500 GEICO Insurance customers have already promised to cancel their policies. Another 6000 have promised never to use Sargento Foods again, and more and more anti-boycott sites are now popping up on the Internet. The most popular, DefendGlenn.com, generated over 850,000 page views its first day.
As to Mr. Mackey, his supporters and defenders are also hard at work creating their own Buy Whole Foods websites. Conservative blogger Michelle Malkin has been leading that charge, and most successfully. Many conservative Republicans, many of whom would never want to be caught dead in a “green” organic foods store, have promised to line up with the carriages and shop Whole Foods big time.
So the Boycott Wars are on and raging in full. Who will win in the end? Glenn Beck and FOX? Or Color For Change? John Mackey and Whole Foods, along with his defenders and supporters? Or UFCW and the masses of left-leaning ObamaCare supporters who will no doubt put a significant dent in Whole Foods’ business? GEICO and Sargento Foods appear to be losers for the moment, unless Color For Change and its support base can somehow make up for those lost customers. Andrew Breitbart just posted a most relevant oped at Big Hollywood covering this subject, entitled “Boycotting the Boycotters.”
As for me, I’m just enjoying the show. As an American citizen, nothing warms my heart more than to see a full-blown political tug-of-war involving high stakes and big bucks, and utilizing all the tools of democracy we so treasure: free speech, assembly, campaigning, and political slugfests. That we can peacefully engage in these crossfires of democracy without firing real shots, as happens all too often across this troubled globe, is a glowing testament to the stability of the American political system. In that respect, we all win. Lastly, where else in the world but America would Lefties be attacking, and Righties defending, Whole Foods?
GEICO Government Employees Insurance. Just expose the name.