Money Changes Everything

From dKosopedia

Category: Netroots

Here are some ideas of how to use a list of Republican-supporting companies.

1. Theory: Turn the CW on its head.

Throughout our lives we are told the candidate and party with the most money wins most of the time. Until now, that meant the most money from the biggest donors, the defense contractors, the Hallburtons. Which is why we ask now: where do a lot of these big corporations get their money that they so willingly give out? Us.

1a. Axiom.

The old axiom is: "Don't bite the hand that feeds you." Here, it works two ways.

2. Purpose.

The purpose is to organize and develop a decentralized network of citizen soldiers - activists, if you prefer - to prove to those big corporations that, just as the candidate with the least money loses, so too does the business that actively works against our interests and causes.

4. Starting Point.

For years, unco-operative regimes have been brought to their knees through a simple economic sanction. This method is appropriate here - a sanction that relies on the purchasing power of over one-hundred forty million people strong. We voted democrat. They ignore our progressive goals and contribute more to the regressives, the Republicans.

5. The Element of Surprise: This is not a boycott.

This is not a boycott. Companies expect simple boycotts. It is a fact of business. The chief flaw of most boycotts is their narrow appeal, and reliance on public anger over issues which in many cases do not directly affect the very people they rely on to support the boycott. Boycotts and strikes come and go in corporate life.

This is a campaign of attrition. For the people adhering to it, the approach relies on exactly two things.

- Willingness to spend a few extra dollars shopping in some cases - Willingness to engage like-minded individuals in the community in the cause

To maintain this small amount of will, they must understand these things:

- Through their spending habits, people control the future of the country in a way more dramatic than they ever could by voting - and it is in many cases a largely unintenional and unrealized result. The businesses they support, not the politicians on the ballot, dictate virtually aspect of the highest levels of American culture and politics. They pay the right candidates, lobby the right Congressmen as well as pay them, control our means of communication with one another, and influence our Zeitgeist with near totality through their media influence and/or control - Conspiracy has little or nothing to do with it. It is purely money which can transform the CEO of a corporation into a man with more power than the President of the United States. - That money comes from us, the American people. - We should not buy from businesses we know nothing about more than their commercials show us. Actions speak much louder than words. - In order to get real changes that many of us desire - healthcare, jobs, better education, more prosperous communities, all we need to do is vote with our money.

6. It is Not Radical. Two Questions to Ask a Progressive/Democrat.

a. Suppose a man in your town with Neo-Nazi views launches a vigorous campaign. If the hardware store down the street you have been going to for years hung Nazi flags up around the store and put signs up with racist language on them to support his campaign, would you still shop there and why not?

b. Name one of the chains you visit regularly, and tell me which politicans they supported this past election?

7. Defeating Dismissive Answers to "b"

Some people will simply say, "of course those corporations support the Republicans."

To which you can say: "Where do they get the money to do that with?"

Some people will say, "Wal-Mart/Target/etc. saves me money. I'm on a fixed income, etc."

To which you can say: "If all of us spent that extra couple of dollars on companies who are progressive, I bet life on a fixed income would get a lot easier once we cut off the funding for the guys who ignore the needs of the little guy." (needs work)

8. To close: "If everyone put a bit more money in, and put it into to businesses who are Progressive, the country could be a lot more Progressive. The power is all in your hands to change the course." (really needs work)

It's a starting point - ideas?