In response to the Left-driven boycott of Whole Foods Markets over CEO John Mackey's Wall Street Journal Op-Ed opposing the ObamaCare bill, the National Tea Party Coalition is scheduling a 'buycott' encouraging the public to shop Whole Foods on Sept. 1.
On Aug. 24, I reported here at Digital Journal on the boycotts of FOX conservative pundit Glenn Beck and Whole Foods CEO John Mackey by Obama supporters, driven by organizations like Color For Change and
UFCW, the food workers' union.
Those boycotts have
led to backlashes by supporters of Glenn Beck and John Mackey, which have since resulted in
significant losses of customers for GEICO Insurance and Sargento Foods. Both companies
withdrew from advertising on the Glenn Beck show at the behest of
Color For Change, an African-American advocacy group with close ties to the White House. Now from
Gateway Pundit comes the news that the National Tea Party Coalition is
throwing its weight behind a "buycott" for Whole Foods scheduled for Tuesday, September 1st, encouraging all its members and the public to shop Whole Foods in moral and financial support of its embattled CEO, John Mackey:
Tea Party Patriot Gina Loudon in St. Louis is asking everyone to hang on to their grocery money until Tuesday, and we will provide sales circulars for people to shop with. Then we will have dinner together for those who want to stay after they shop. Anyone who cannot attend should SAVE THEIR RECEIPTS and mail them to Gina.
The boycott of Whole Foods over the
political position of its CEO on ObamaCare, who supports market-based alternatives in health care as opposed to the public option, has generated
condemnation in the conservative blogosphere, with many calling it "a chilling of free speech" and a blatant political tactic to pressure CEO John Mackey into changing his position on the President's health care bill.
Conservative blogger Michelle Malkin has been
front and center in the Whole Foods debate, in full support of CEO John Mackey and against those leading the boycott charge, particularly UFCW, an arm of the
SEIU union now
confronting ObamaCare town hall protesters by the busload. By contrast, the Left-leaning
Huffington Post has been
fully supportive of both the Whole Foods and Glenn Beck boycotts. Over 25,000 people have signed up at a Facebook boycott page, vowing never to shop Whole Foods again.
The Whole Foods board of directors
issued a statement on August 13th supporting Mr. Mackey's right to his position, and that Mr. Mackey does in fact support health care reform, just not in its current form in the ObamaCare bill. The board also stated that differing opinions on the matter are commonplace even among Whole Foods Market employees, and should be respected by all.
