Medical Overhaul: Whole Foods' CEO weighed in on health care, just as our president urged. But instead of engaging him in civil discussion, angry leftists boycotted his stores. They've succeeded only in chilling debate.
John Mackey is a successful entrepreneur. Unlike many politicians, he has actual experience providing health care for private-sector workers. So as the debate over reform cranked up, he wrote an Aug. 12 op-ed for the Wall Street Journal describing "The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare" and offering eight sensible free-market ideas that haven't been discussed on the news.
Mackey didn't criticize other plans. He merely tossed a refreshing bucket of reality onto the fever swamps of Congress, which is now trying to pass a socialized health care bill without debate.
But an honest opinion differing from Washington wisdom was too much for the radical left. They blew a gasket over Mackey, distorted his views as against health care reform and called a boycott. And their boycott drew a slew of media attention.
Now, make no mistake, this boycott is a colossal flop. But all the same, it was a vile thing to do, not only for its disproportionate response -- seeking to destroy a company with 50,000 employees -- but because its real effect will be to spook executives everywhere from giving their badly needed input into health care reform. What CEO would want this for his company merely for giving an opinion?
The effect will chill public debate. Frankly, this harkens to fascism. Even so, the media is still hyping this baloney.
Well, facts tell a different story. At presstime, Facebook showed 27,138 people signed up to the Boycott Whole Foods page, contrasting with the 122,368 who belong to the Whole Foods fan page, in addition to the 200 or so fans on each of 105 local store fan pages.
So far, numberswise, the fans have it.
More importantly, Whole Foods has stated that there has been no noticeable impact on sales from this over-hyped boycott either.
The stock market confirms it, and shows an uptrend in price.
Anecdotally, IBD checked out traffic at Whole Foods stores in the bluest parts of Los Angeles over the weekend -- Santa Monica, Beverly Hills and Fairfax in West Los Angeles.
In all of them, parking lots were packed.
A West Hollywood protest Sunday drew a mighty two dozen protestors. In Berkeley, IndyMedia.org's Web site showed just three sign-holders. Framingham, Mass. reportedly drew a dozen. Austin, Tex. attracted 20, but half were those protesting the protestors.
On Facebook's boycott site, fringe-left thinking dominates. Fury on the bulletin board is mostly focused on a topic called "Right Wing Pledges To Shop Whole Foods."
Members there gloat that their boycott will force rightwingers to eat organic food. Others fret that they may have to shop at Wal-Mart because it favors Congress' health care proposals.
Some on the site seem to be advocates of "freeganism," or scavenging and eating discarded food as an alternative to shopping at Whole Foods to show moral superiority. That's also called dumpster-diving, friends.
The person listed as the page's creator, one Mark E. Rosenthal, declares one of his interests as "public nudity."
Obviously, none of these protestors would seem to be a good customer fit for Whole Foods. Given their unusual alternative lifestyle choices, we wonder how many shopped there anyway.
We don't know if their beef with Whole Foods stems from other disagreements, or just health care. But their focus on shutting down public debate and intimidating others merely for having a different idea makes them a menace to democratic participation. Their allies on the left need to tell them to stop.
Source: Investor's Business Daily
