Randi Reitan of Eden Prairie was so outraged when she heard about our wonderful Target donating $150,000 to an anti-gay, super right-wing fund that supports Tom Emmer that she took matters in her own hands. She took her Target charge card in her own hands and trooped off to the local Target and bought $226.32 worth of merchandise. She then went to another Target and returned everything, explaining each item. She then cut up her Target card never to visit Target again.
The recent Citizens United decision by the Roberts Supreme Court invites corporations to spend unlimited amounts of corporate profits for or against any candidate. Previously they were limited to asking employees for voluntary donations to their political action committees.
Target has enjoyed a very positive role with a wide range of the populace including the gay community. They have participated in Pride and other community events. Not surprisingly, Target’s donation to a group supporting Tom Emmer has provoked responses from many quarters.
A lot of people don’t know this, but Target contributes a LOT to Republicans, not all of their money, but the majority of it. Shop somewhere else. They blow.
I have been a long time reader here. You guys actually wrote an article about me, the MN David Brooks. I am really glad you are all supporting a boycott against Target. I have also sent them e-mails and am posting articles on my site too.
I am not trying to spam on here so I wont post my site on here. But here is the e-mail I sent in response to the first e-mail I got.
To whom it may concern:
Thank you for your response.
I am sorry that you believe that Tom Emmer will bring “thoughtful, long-term growth in the state of Minnesota.” The fact is that he will not. Due to your affirmation of his beliefs and your continuation to support his ultra right-wing ideology, I will not be able to support Target Corp. in any manner in the future.
Transparency in our Electoral process is important. It is good to know that Target believes Emmer will Create jobs and economic growth, regardless of his stances on civil rights, the environment, unemployment benefits, gay rights, or many other issues that he takes ultra right-wing stances on.
“Our support of causes and candidates is based strictly on issues that affect our retail and business objectives.”
That is very good to know that social stewardship, equal rights, civil rights, equal opportunity or many of these other issues are not important to Target when they decide to support a candidate. I get it, only economics matters to Target Corp.
Also, I would like to hear more about the economic theories as to why Emmer would best create jobs or economic growth. I assume that Target corp believes in trickledown economics then? What about unemployment benefits. I guess Emmer wanting to get rid of those benefits would also stimulate our economy?
I will be posting this on my websites as well. I will be quoting from this response.
Thank you,
David Brooks.
I’m the guy that confused you with the moron who writes for the NY Times. Sorry about that.
BTW, feel free to pimp your stuff here. I think our readers are looking for more folks to follow on the lefty blogosphere. This is your website, right?
http://www.politablog.com/
I loved that article, I just wish I had hit home on more of the Awesome things Franken has done. You guys here have a great site and I love it a lot. PB is my site. Thanks for the reply.
Oh yea, this is an awesome video too. I have watched it and really want to head down to a Target right now. Are there any protests or anything planned? Something should be done, it would make the news for sure.
I’ve always thought a good protest against a retailer would be to have people fill their carts with merchandise, go to the checkstand and have the cashier ring it up, and then when when it’s time to pay, make a quick statement that this transaction cannot be completed because of their policies for/against whatever. Then walk out the door.
I used to think this protest would be good against the corrupt policies of WalMart.
To preempt an argument that someone out there will make, this would not be an action against cashiers. Cashiers would still get paid their near minimum wage whether they’re ringing up another customer or restocking shelves from merchandise left at the checkstand.
But it would hurt the productivity of the store, and management would hate that.
I love that idea!
You’ll drive “management” crazy, but the “management” you’ll be driving crazy are the ETLs in the stores. They’ll have to deal with massive amounts of strays at the end of the night (or the following morning). It will add to their already high stress level. They’re mostly kids in their 20s and 30s who are working their tails off all day and have views of every political stripe. Not every ETL is a Republican. I would know, I was one for a while. It won’t do anything to effect what the upper upper management like Greg Steinhafel do.
Believe it or not, the sales floor team members (at least the really good ones) actually care about helping run a really good store. You’ll be forcing them to work their tails off at the end of the night, and maybe stay after the Target-mandated end time of 11pm. There’s a good chance that you’ll be adding to the workload of the team members who open the store the next morning, too. If you think the extra hours sound great, try to think how you would feel at the end of an 8 hour shift running around the sales floor. You just want out of there. I helped run a really busy store when I was an ETL, and tough days really took a toll on the team members. It also took a toll on the ETLs. You know who it didn’t bother much? Greg Steinhafel.
If you want to hurt Target for this, boycott them. Low sales reverberate through the company. Shop n drop will just add to the stress and workload of a lot of good people who are working their tails off. Personally, I won’t be boycotting. Is it really a surprise that a big corporation is donating to a pro-business right-wing group? I expect it, and I gotta shop somewhere.
I still think this would be a viable protest method. Yes, it is the average store worker who would physically restock the merchandise. But it would create extra work that would drive up operational expenses. That would bother upper management. It really would.
I used to shop at Target quite a bit, recognizing that they have donated to Republicans, but believing that Target was a better choice anyway, and I liked to support a MN company. And I have to shop somewhere, right?? Now that I’m boycotting Target, however, I realize that I really didn’t need all those cheap things that I was buying there anyway. Another shirt? Seasonal dishes? Candleholder with a bird on it? Picnicing supplies? No. I can do without all these stupid things that brought me some pleasure but a lot of consumerist guilt too.
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