Hobby Lobby is representative of a major constitutional victory for freedom lovers across the country. Liberty-minded conservatives celebrate and applaud, as one shred of our freedom was upheld in one branch of our government.
I founded the BUYcott movement in 2010. Since the very beginning of this Hobby Lobby ordeal, I have been asked to "BUYcott" Hobby Lobby. I started the BUYcott movement about five years ago when Jon Mackie, CEO of Whole Foods, came out publicly against Obamacare.
It happened, well, organically.
Some couples get home from work and think about long walks or going to dinner. My freedom-minded husband often comes home and thinks about what we can do to advance liberty in the world our children will live in one day. One night, he came home and asked me if I wanted to go cross the picket line that the unions had established in our small, Midwestern town outside of our local Whole Foods grocery store.
I never shopped there – I knew the store had an environmental extremist bent and promoted green living and other myths, so I had no desire to spend my money there – until that day.
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Why did the unions so quickly turn their backs on a CEO of a store that was clearly leftist? The answer was clear: Union bosses are fundamentally anti-anything free market.
You must be lockstep on all statist issues if you are a statist, or you are "Alinskied":
Saul Alinsky's 12th "Rule for Radicals": Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it and polarize it." Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions.
This is the traditional approach for labor unions to impose on those not doing their bidding, and especially those who are within their ranks and stray. Tyranny hates dissent.
So when Jon Mackey was being picketed, I decided to cross that picket line. But I decided to take 1,000 patriots who wanted to talk with their pocketbooks with me. That night we spent more than $50,000 at our local Whole Foods store. As you can imagine, I was invited to organize BUYcotts at other Whole Foods stores all over America. Whole Foods stocks went up under the union protests.
Not long later, Arizona was attacked and boycotted for upholding the rule of law against illegal invasion, and I took my BUYcott to Arizona. Tourism in the state was boycotted by pro-invasion statists who want the illegals for votes, and patriots were ready and willing to stand up to that sort of utilitarian exploitation of human beings. While statists boycotted, we BUYcotted, and Arizona tourism went up that year.
Since then, every time there is a free-market issue, I am deluged with letters and implored to BUYcott again. The left has, as they will, attempted to co-opt the movement with an app designed to damage conservative companies. It hasn't seen near the success of our conservative BUYcotts, partly because conservatives are the party of principle, and talking with our pocketbooks comes naturally to us.
Freedom of religion clearly fits that bill, so many are asking why I haven't launched a BUYcott for Hobby Lobby (especially now that the left has promised a boycott).
No one was more pleased to hear of Hobby Lobby's victory in the courts than I was! But I don't think a BUYcott is warranted right now. My check is this …
I have not shopped at Hobby Lobby for years, since I noticed that almost all of their products are made in China, one of the most totalitarian pro-abortion countries in the entire world. I have such sympathy for businesses like Hobby Lobby who, because of unions inflating costs so dramatically, have almost no choice but to sell China-made goods if they want their customers to have reasonable prices. This is a dilemma, but also may be a real opportunity for something very BUYcottable: A partnership between between Hobby Lobby, and open-shop (non-union) American manufacturing companies. They probably do sell some American made products, but maybe their next heroic act can be to shut down their Chinese plants and use exclusively free-market, open-shop American contractors!
Some will say, "But you BUYcotted Whole Foods, which supports the green movement, so why can't you support this Christian-owned store that needs your support now?"
I think our credibility is really on the line here, folks. I try hard to praise the left when they do something right, and I come down harder on John Boehner, Karl Rove and company than I do on Obama, because I think it is the hypocrisy on our side that builds cynicism, and ultimately complacency and tyranny. We have to be above that.
I praise Hobby Lobby for fighting the good fight here, and scoring such a major victory for freedom! I praise them also for their efforts in China to reform the way business is done, and to ensure that their workers are treated humanely. I praise them for standing.
I also think it is great that freedom lovers across this great nation are supporting them by shopping there, and talking with their pocketbooks, just like I have always advocated both privately and collectively.
I would choose to let this one go. Let Hobby Lobby enjoy its victory, as it has every right to do. It does not need to become the Chick-fil-A of the conservative movement. Its business will flourish, and it will be fine.
Before conservatives make Hobby Lobby their mascot, give it time. If American freedom lovers really want to stand for something, urge Hobby Lobby to partner exclusively with open-shop, American manufacturers for their products. Then, BUYcott! I will be first in line.