[Dialogue] Consumers Rule!

[KroegerD@aol.com]

Amazon.com Is For Republicans 
Attention, liberal shoppers! Next year, screw those GOP-supportin' companies, 
and try buying blue 
- By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Wednesday, December 22, 2004 

Do you care much that greasy ol' Pizza Hut gave tens of thousands in PAC 
money to the GOP last year? How about the fact that Taco Bell stopped pumping out 
their happily toxic semirancid meatlike substances just long enough to write a 
fat check to the conservative Right? Isn't that weirdly fascinating, in a 
depressing and indigestible sort of way? 
Does it matter a whit that, say, Fruit of the Loom underwear gave nearly 100 
percent of its corporate donations to tighty-whitey-wearing Republicans, 
nearly every one of whom I'm guessing wouldn't know appetizing undergarments from a 
flap of burlap and some string? 
Do you think maybe it should? Matter, that is? 
This is what happened: there was this list, see, a long and rather surprising 
list of major consumer corporations in America, and it detailed just how much 
money each company forked over to the respective political parties last year 
in political-action-committee (PAC) donations. 
Stop yawning. It gets better. 
And the list was a bit revelatory and interesting, as such lists are often 
wont to be, and the companies' fiscal behavior might even surprise you a little, 
might even take you aback and make you reconsider your consumerist options, 
especially the part about how Amazon.com gave 60 percent of their donations to 
the GOP and except maybe for the part about how Coors Brewing gave almost 
every penny of their donations to Republicans in a concerted effort to, 
presumably, stop them icky Colorado gays from getting married and keep women in their 
place, all while furthering the cause of skanky undrinkable pisswater beer made 
for red-blooded Americans who lack taste buds and hope. 
And this list, it recently winged its way around the Net and landed in a 
million liberal e-mail boxes and it became an instant mini sensation, and then did 
what any good electronic sensation does: it spawned a Web site. 
And the site, called buyblue.org (along with its more detailed but less 
intuitively named counterpart, choosetheblue.com), spawned a mini movement and the 
mini movement spawned this very column and now you are right now encouraged to 
go see for yourself and discover the moderately shocking truths regarding 
which big shiny companies suck up to the happy sneering homophobic 
enviro-slappin' warmongering Repubs and which give thousands to the whiny limping 
kick-us-when-we're-down Demos. 
And then what? Just what are you supposed to do with this information? Well, 
like any good American living in a gutted economy that's trillions in debt, 
all while a massive bogus unwinnable war is being waged by the most 
irresponsible cadre of pseudo-leaders this nation has ever known, you go shopping. 
But maybe, just maybe, you shift your choices just a little. Maybe you change 
where your weakened and abused dollar goes as it slowly dawns on you that you 
might not be as powerless as you might've thought. 
And maybe you recognize that if there's one thing that corporations 
absolutely goddamn never fail to respond to in a million years, it's the bottom line, 
consumer satisfaction, the almighty but increasingly limp dollar. You think? 
Because I don't care how shriveled the souls of a given company's GOP-lovin' 
board of directors are, if they see profits dropping because all the shoppers 
in the huge and culturally potent blue cities -- the shoppers, in other words, 
who don't live in the red welfare states and hence who actually have a shred 
of disposable income and maybe a modicum of concern and integrity regarding 
who profits when they spend it -- if they notice that those shoppers are 
suddenly skipping nasty little Circuit City (98 percent to Repubs) and instead buy 
their compressed-plastic Japanese-made landfill-ready electronics at monstrous 
Price Club (98 percent to Dems), well, it sends them a message. 
And the message is, in a calm and respectful nutshell, "Bite me." 
Because this is what I get asked all the time: What can I do? How can I 
possibly help stop the ominous onslaught of born-again right-wing hypocrisy and 
fear and the Parents Television Council and all the bogus Texas machismo now 
flooding the nation like a bad country song? Here is part of your answer. 
And no, it ain't exactly like marching in the streets and it ain't exactly as 
helpful as shifting your lifestyle over to organic foods and sustainable 
living and to buying local and supporting hybrid this and recyclable that, all 
while cranking your alt-spiritual vibration and having spectacular and deeply 
nonconservative sex. 
But it's something. It's a start, a baby step. It is about getting informed, 
just a little, and realizing that you are, in fact, the fuel for America's 
economic engine, and if you decide to get yourself into massive credit card debt 
at the right kind of stores instead of those whose executives apparently 
believe that God really does hate gays and trees and women and the poor and anyone 
who wears a turban or speaks French, well, maybe it will make you feel just 
slightly more aligned and maybe it can make a tiny bit of difference and Goddess 
knows a difference is so desperately needed right now you can't even believe 
it. 
What can you do? You can skip the Marriott or the Holiday Inn (76 and 73 
percent to the GOP respectively), and stay at the lib-friendly Hyatt. Skip 
Yahoo.com (58 percent to the GOP -- what the hell?) and head over to Google, which 
gave 100 percent (!) of their donations to the Dems (side note: Google rules). 
What else? Toss American and Continental, fly JetBlue. Join NetFlix. Screw 
Repub-lovin' Wal-Mart and K-Mart (and, if you're reading this column, chances 
are you need no prompting from me to avoid those epic karmic wastelands) and 
head over to the giant vortex of consumer madness known as Bed Bath & Beyond, 
which gave 93 percent to the Dems. I know. I hate that store, too. But now you 
get to hate them a little less. 
Another amazing example? Starbucks. And as much as I despise their ruthless 
march into funky neighborhoods and strip malls across the nation, the coffee 
monolith does indeed have truly fabulous employee benefits and incredible 
customer service, and now you learn that they gave 100 percent of their donations, 
every single frothy frappaccinoed dime, to the Democrats. It's true. So leave 
that hideous Folgers and the Sanka swill to jittery BushCo. Go get yourself a 
peppermint mocha and feel good about it. 
As for Amazon, well, it is a bit distressing for many of us who love that 
bulbous megastore and who shop there all the time to discover that they gave so 
much to Repubs, which is just odd and a bit inexplicable, especially given how 
they're based in hugely liberal Seattle and geeky CEO Jeff Bezos seemed at one 
time to be reasonably attuned and quirky and progressive, except maybe he's 
not. 
Maybe he's just another hollow profiteer who supports war and disses 
foreigners and thinks gays are, you know, icky. But then again, Amazon did give 40 
percent to Democrats. So it's a close call. After all, the venerable and 
terminally annoying Barnes & Noble gave 98 percent to the Dems, and I can't stand 
Barnes & Noble. But now, like Starbucks, I hate them a little less. And now maybe 
I'll just skip Amazon and buy my next gift copy of "The Surrender" or "What's 
the Matter with Kansas?" or "The Book of Bunny Suicides" from B&N instead. 
See? See how easy? Baby steps, people. Baby steps. 



Thoughts for the author? E-mail him. NOTE: Mark's column will be on holiday 
break until January 5. 

Mark's column archives are here. 

Dick Kroeger
65 Stubbs Bay Road
Maple Plain, MN 55359
952-476-6126