Don’t say I haven’t been warning you.
While the secondary boycott of Rush Limbaugh has been only marginally effective, Color of Change has had more success getting major companies to drop their participation in the American Legislative Exchange Counsel (ALEC) by falsely tying ALEC’s support of “stand your ground” laws to the Trayvon Marin shooting, and falsely characterizing voter i.d. laws as racist.
It’s a complete stick up.
Via Michelle Malkin, Amazon.com is the latest company to cave in to pressure:
I received the following statement from Amazon.com today regarding its decision not to renew its membership with the American Legislative Exchange Council:
Thanks for reaching out to me. Each year we evaluate all of our association memberships and we’ve decided not to renew our participation in ALEC, in part because of positions that group took on issues unrelated to our business.
Best, Mary Osako Amazon Spokesperson
In other words: They caved. They chose to appease marginal agitators who have capitalized on the Trayvon Martin case to squelch conservatives’ participation in the legislative process.
I told you last month that State Farm and Johnson & Johnson are their next targets. AT&T is also on that list.
If you don’t speak up, they’ll cave, too.
Before you pull your dollars from Amazon, I suggest using your customer clout to pressure Amazon to reverse course. These companies need to hear from customers and investors that suppressing conservative political participation is not good for their business. Stand your ground.
Via HuffPo:
The giant Internet retailer Amazon.com Thursday said it will withdraw its membership from the American Legislative Exchange Council, the conservative public policy group that engineered controversial “stand your ground” gun laws and sweeping voter ID requirements that critics say threaten to disenfranchise minority voters.
The announcement was made during Amazon.com’s annual shareholders meeting in Seattle, as the hue and cry against the organization, known as ALEC, and the corporations that support it continues to rise. Outside the meeting at the Seattle Art Museum, more than 100 protesters hoisted signs and clogged the entrance. Inside, Amazon executives and lawyers took questions from shareholders, including some asking about the company’s membership in ALEC.
“This year, we’ve decided not to renew with ALEC, and it’s because of positions they’ve taken not related to our business,” Michelle Wilson, an Amazon attorney, told about 200 shareholders at the meeting, according to reports. Mary Osako, a spokeswoman for Amazon, later added: “Each year we evaluate all of our association memberships, and we decided not to renew our participation in ALEC in part because of positions that group took on issues unrelated to our business.”
Rashad Robinson, executive director of the advocacy group Color of Change, called the withdrawal a win “for the little guy.” Color of Change has led a campaign calling for corporations to quit ALEC, saying the group could “no longer work in the shadows.”
Amazon.com’s Twitter is @Amazon, and its Facebook page is here. Amazon’s Public Relations e-mail is [email protected].
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Comments
Well, that is just shameful.
Getting them to back-track is worth the effort, since so many small businesses…and right bloggers…depend on Amazon.
Color of Mau-mau is a tiny little group of Collectivist haters, and this cannot go without an answer by the much larger population of Conservatives.
It is a mistake to view Color of Change as a small group though it’s often described as such. They used 285,000 members in their successful campaign against Glenn Beck. The left has more bodies for these kinds of campaigns than the right does.
4/6/11, “Oakland’s Color of Change was main force in Glenn Beck boycotts,” San Francisco Chronicle, Garofoli
“”ColorOfChange strongly applauds Glenn Beck’s departure from the Fox News Channel. Over 285,000 ColorOfChange members have participated in our campaign against him since it began in July 2009. Because of them, Beck’s show
lost over 300 advertisers.””
Color of Mau-mau is tiny.
I will hold that view until actual data from an independant source shows otherwise.
People like Color LIE. They do it constantly. NOTHING about them is to be believed until you know it is true by researching the primary source.
Super Pacs will replace all these company aggregate groups .
Get value for your money & go for the jugular.
BTW Newt’s companies (lobbyists under the consult & development umbrella ) are on the receiving end of this trend & are contesting bankruptcy in Georgia.
This will bite.
1. Does Amazon support any politically active leftist organizations? If so, what are they?
2. I don’t want to say that two can play the same game. I don’t want to say that when we take power—as we will, hopefully soon, maybe later—we will use that power to retaliate against the likes of Amazon. I don’t want to say that we should make the likes of Amazon fear us more than they fear the Left.
I didn’t want to say those things, but I just did.
Apparently Instapundit and I are on the same page:
…pretends, without success, to look unassuming…
I’m reminded of Aragorn’s quote from LOTR: Open war is upon you whether you would risk it or not.
Here’s the thing: if you’re a loyal Amazon customer, they know a _ton_ about you. Backing out political views from shopping data isn’t hard – especially books.
Would the same people who go ballistic about library privacy be happy to use Amazon’s book purchase data to harass and troll their political enemies? Face it, they would.
If you buy from Amazon, you have to trust them. Do you? Still? Really? Haven’t they just given evidence that they can’t be?
I think folks have to think twice before they order stuff – I don’t think there’s a choice any more.
So, Color of Change is a business operated on the principle of prejudice for profit. Hilarious.
Their indignation is motivated by a selective recognition of real events. Insane.
The outcome of civil and human rights movements has been the codification and institutionalization of discrimination by race, gender, and whatever else crosses their degenerate minds.
After all this “progress”, I wonder who actually won The Civil War. There is growing evidence that individuals and cooperatives which reject individual dignity on principle have emerged as a potent force which is capable, ironically, of effecting a disparate impact. Well, no one said the old order would be easy to overcome, let alone permanently relegated to history.
Thanks. Just sent a letter, just terminated Amazon. I copied this thread, as well as Malkin’s, and told them that a brave reversal would be celebrated and win renewed customer loyalty. But without that…
Notice who is on the Board of Directors- Jamie Gorelick.
This was a done deal before Color of Change even inked its first words to Amazon.
Officers
Jeffrey P. Bezos
President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board
Jeffrey M. Blackburn
Senior Vice President, Business Development
Sebastian J. Gunningham
Senior Vice President, Seller Services
Andrew R. Jassy
Senior Vice President, Amazon Web Services
Steven Kessel
Senior Vice President, Worldwide Digital Media
Marc A. Onetto
Senior Vice President, Worldwide Operations
Diego Piacentini
Senior Vice President, International Consumer Business
Shelley L. Reynolds
Vice President, Worldwide Controller and Principal Accounting Officer
Thomas J. Szkutak
Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
H. Brian Valentine
Senior Vice President, Ecommerce Platform
Jeffrey A. Wilke
Senior Vice President, Consumer Business
L. Michelle Wilson
Senior Vice President, General Counsel, Secretary
Directors
Jeffrey P. Bezos
President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board
Tom A. Alberg
Madrona Venture Group
John Seely Brown
Visiting Scholar and Advisor to the Provost at USC
William B. (Bing) Gordon
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
Jamie S. Gorelick
Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP
Blake G. Krikorian
id8 Group Productions, Inc.
Alain Monié
Ingram Micro Inc.
Jonathan Rubinstein
Former Chairman and CEO, Palm, Inc.
Thomas O. Ryder
Former Chairman and CEO, Reader’s Digest Association, Inc.
Patricia Q. Stonesifer
Smithsonian Institution
My family and I have evaluated our association with Amazon and will be discontinuing it.
It will be interesting to see if, for example, Instapundit continues to alert readers to Amazon deals and The Other McCain continues its relationship with Amazon.
I don’t recall any conservative media types who dropped Carbonite or any other sponsors that dropped Rush. Is putting principal ahead of economic self-interest just for us little guys?
Here’s the challenge. Amazon, as Carbonite, as, indeed, America, are more than its management. There is no easy path to reform; although, expressing ourselves through the market is a semi-peaceful means to promote it. Whether we act or not, there is rarely a win-win situation, especially when the subject is a contributor to economic productivity.
I have never used Amazon(dot)com, nor do I ever wish to.. But if this is how they wish to be seen as an anti-American liberal company, then we can boycott their company just as well as they can, and would be more than happy to advocate and promote such a boycott as well..
I have posted my disappointment with this decision on Amazon’s Facebook page, and sent email to the links cited using both of my private email accounts. I hope many more do likewise.
Just got off chatting with them:
Me:Why did you drop support for the ALEC?
Beaulah David:Hello,Brad I’m Beaulah.
Me:Hello Beaulah.
Amazon gave into a leftist protest group and no longer takes part in with a group called the American Legislative Exchange Counsel. Do you have any idea what I’m speaking of?
Beaulah David:Yes, I do have an idea.
We appreciate your feedback.
I’ve have forwarded it to the correct team internally.
They’ll get back to you within 1-2 business days.
Me:Please forward that I left brick and mortar stores to shop here, and while I’m not a large customer we do add up. I am very disappointed to say the least. You have been very helpful, and thank you for your time.
Beaulah David:sure.
Thank you.
Is there anything else I can do for you today?
Me:no, everything else about Amazon is top notch, but if this is the path they decide to lead they will certainly reap the benefits of it. The protest groups talk a big game, but people like me actually use your product. Thanks again.
I blush to admit now how much money I’ve spent at Amazon since the mid-’90s. I even have two of their travel cups, given out to customers ca. ’96 & ’97 — their way of thanking us and advertising the brand. I have a video library at Amazon, think Netflix, and just this week purchased Forbidden Planet, which I watched with the grandkids; I have almost every Poirot and MI-5; some Bogey and Bacall; and John Wayne, Downton Abbey and Laurel and Hardy. My book purchases through the years run into the thousands of dollars. I have bought countless gifts for family and friends throughout the years. I have bought a one-thousand dollar camera through Amazon. And I’ve bought used books through their dealers.
But what does it matter? To me, Amazon is as dead. I never want to hear the name again.
Oh. And by the way. If I’d known Jamie Gorelick was on the board, I would have ceased business with Amazon that very day.
Looks like I need to check out the boards of every business I frequent. I’m also (O/T, sort of), ceasing my business with Target this week, as they’ve decided like Home Depot to involve themselves with the culture wars by endorsing homosexual marriage. My vote at the ballot box doesn’t seem to mean much anymore what with ACORN and rampant voter fraud. At least I have 100% control of my message when I use dollars!
1. I hadn’t known about Gorelick. My first reaction is that putting her on the board is far worse than dropping ALEC. My second reaction is to ask if she was involved in dropping ALEC.
2. Amazon stock is currently selling at 177 times annual earnings. Compare to Walmart, whose multiple is 14.
That means there is an awwwwful lot of
wishful thinkingoptimism built into Amazon stock. An awwwwful lot of things have to go spectacularly right, and almost nothing can go in the least wrong, to justify that price.3. Instead, Amazon’s conservative customers will see red when they learn about ALEC, and redder when they learn about Gorelick. Ditto for conservative legislatures in states where Amazon operates, and in states where Amazon is trying not to be taxed. If the stock plunges, there are lawyers who would be delighted to tell federal judges that the company is liable. Gorelick may again justify her reputation as Mistress of Disaster.
And I don’t have the slightest sympathy for Amazon. They just threw away more than a decade of goodwill by this customer.
You’re inspiring. I used them moderately but consistently and subscribed to Prime. I’m done too.
If that was meant for me, thank you, raven. I’ve just been over at the Barnes&Noble website and love it! That’s where my book and movie dollars are going, for now. Hope they don’t do anything stupid like the book co. that’s named for a South American river.
Please tell us more on why you cancelled (optional)
Happy to. I prefer dealing with outfits with whom I’m in philosophical agreement. Now that you have entered the fray by withdrawing your support from ALEC, it occurs to me that you have forgotten the principles which ultimately enable the success you enjoy, particularly the rule of law and the integrity which it requires. While I have enjoyed dealing with you, we’re done until such time as I may reconsider after you have resumed your support of ALEC. Please convey my intentions to Ms. Osako, your spokeswoman.
I spend a few hundred each year because of the convenience. No more. If there is an alternative, I will look for it and spend my few hundred a year there.
Why doesn’t a conservative start a competing business? A few years back, there was a local retailer [Luskin’s] who advertised the lowest prices. They moved into a new territory serviced by Circuit City. CC moved into Luskin’s territory, undercut Luskin’s prices and put Luskin’s out of business.
Amazon and others can do what they want. And, so can I.
I am not beholden to Amazon or to anyone. I buy what I want where I want from whomever I want at the price I want to pay or I don’t buy it at all. Seller beware.
You knew that Amazon was heading hard a port when they named Jamie Gorlick to the Board of Directors. Wonder what has happened to Jeff B???
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