Is it time to start boycotting?

I’m like many conservatives that have disdained calling for mass boycotts of companies that we disagree with, believing that people should chose for themselves on where to shop, what to watch and what to participate in. However I’m starting to rethink that stance.

One of my favorite columnists at Townhall.com is John Hawkins. His latest piece is titled “If Conservatives Want To Change America, We Need To Embrace Boycotts.” From his column:

“Liberals have already co-opted Hollywood and our education system; so it’s no secret that the deck is stacked against conservatives in America. However, liberals have also started to pull corporate America to the Left as well. The world’s most powerful corporations are standing against mom and pop Christian bakeries that don’t want to participate in gay weddings and threatening states that don’t want grown men using the bathroom with little girls. While corporations tend to favor whichever politician is in power, they are much more likely to give money to overtly liberal groups than conservative ones. Even ESPN, the all sports network, has a liberal bent. Politically, you can say anything if it’s to the left of center, but Curt Schilling was fired for having a conservative point of view.”

 

and

 

“That’s why corporations bend over backwards to make liberals happy while they’re indifferent to offending Christians. The squeaky wheel gets the grease while those who suffer in silence are ignored.”

A good example of why boycotts can work comes in the wake of North Carolina’s “Bathroom Bill” which led Target to make their controversial declaration on where they stand on the bathroom issue in their stores. In response the American Family Association started a petition calling for a boycott of Target, at the last check they have garnered well over 1.1 million signatures.

Target’s announcement was made on April 20th at the start of the day their stock price was 83.98 per share. Two weeks later on May 4th they closed at 79.71 per share. While that may not sound like much it’s a drop of 5% or more dramatically that equals a market value drop of over 1.5 billion dollars.

A final note on Target’s bathroom policy TheBlaze’s Lawrence visited a local Target in the Dallas metroplex area to ask shoppers their opinion, one gentleman sums it up best by stating “it’s all about the kids”

Featured image Barbwire