One of the mailing lists I’m on, filled with pro-Obama folks, is exercised because the Borders book chain is prominently featuring Corsi’s hatchet job. Someone on the list is now suggesting that we each call Borders and tell them they’ve lost a customer.

Not me.

Corsi’s book is at the front of the store because it’s a best seller. It’s possibly a best seller because of large buys by politically motivated groups, as opposed to being a grass roots best seller, but, a best seller is a best seller. Also, publishers pay book stores to place their books at the front. So, there’s no reason to think Borders is engaged in an anti-Obama conspiracy. It’s just business, as venal and corrupt as usual.

So, why not fight back via the marketplace by organizing a boycott of Borders, or less, drastically, simply letting Borders know that we may be skipping the next couple of visits?

Go ahead. I wouldn’t picket you if you did. But, personally, I’m reluctant to use economic threats to affect political debate. I didn’t like it when radio stations refused to play even non-political Dixie Chicks songs, I wouldn’t stay out of a 7/11 that put a McCain sign up in its window, and I’d be angry at Borders if the right wing had gotten the store to move “The Audacity of Hope” off the front shelves because “it’s blatant political pandering.”

We’re better off without these threats to the pocketbook.

(Except sometimes.) [Tags: ]

Categories: Uncategorized dw