http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2004/12/22/notes122204.DTL&nl=fix

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 ***** 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.

Mark Morford's Notes & Errata column appears every Wednesday and
Friday on SF Gate, unless it appears on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which
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