washington, dc

The Democratic Strategist

Political Strategy for a Permanent Democratic Majority

Buying Blue Can Be Tricky

EDM received a couple of comments about the “Buying Blue, Boycotting Red” post below, and both writers make excellent points. One is that union membership should be a consideration. The other is that what a company does, especially its role in partisan politics, should also be a criterion in buying blue. For example, the News Corp company listed as a “blue buy” is part of the Fox Network and red-listed UPS has unionized drivers. To this we might add a company’s environmental and diversity track records should be factors to look at for consumers who want to “buy blue.” No doubt the folks at buyblue.org have wrestled with these and other factors. Indeed, it would be a good idea for them to provide links to such lists. (Oddly enough, however, aflcio.org does not provide a list of currently unionized companies). The more such filters are applied, however, the shorter the buy blue list becomes. But buyblue.org nonetheless provides a great service for Dems as it is — to make good choices as consumers, we need to know which companies’ top executives lavish cash on the GOP.