Target has come under fire for a recent $150k donation to a group in Minnesota called MN Forward. They are a pro-business group that supports Tom Emmer, a Republican running for governor in MN. While Emmer has business friendly proposals, he also has voiced opposition to gay marriage and other gay rights.
The site MoveOn.org has proposed a petition to boycott the store due to the fact that they support a candidate who opposes gay rights, but also because they disagree with corporate donations to political agendas. I have a feeling that the first of those is really the underlying issue. Interestingly, on the MoveOn.org homepage right now, the Target item is still the main point, despite that yesterday the AFL-CIO said that they would spend well over $50 million before the November elections to support Democratic candidates. To be fair, the AFL-CIO is not a corporation, but they are definitely a special interest group, which MoveOn claims to be opposed to. I agree with MoveOn when they say corporations are not people, but I also I don’t think a labor union is a person either. Sure, they “represent” people (laborers), but really so does a corporation (shareholders). Both are going to do everything they can in order to reap the most benefits for those they represent.
As a reminder, the Citizens United ruling affected both corporations and unions. Something that the MoveOn.org site seems to fail to mention.
Target will do whatever it can to get higher profits. That’s what their job is, and they use various methods to do it. One of these was to give $150k to a group that supports a candidate that will try to enact policies they favor. Another thing they do is give a ton of money to charity. I honestly don’t think that they don’t give away all this money because they feel a moral obligation to do so, I think they do it as a PR gig in order to drive sales. Really, though, it doesn’t matter why they do it, they still do it. Every dollar I spend at Target, some small portion of that comes back to my community. I’m buying cookies, and helping some school or something. Does this influence my buying habits? Heck no, I go where it’s cheap, but a lot of people do take note.
What’s my point with all of this? A couple, actually. My main one is that I don’t think you should boycott Target for this. As far as “evil corporations” go, Target is actually pretty good. They’re just looking out for their best interest, the same way any other entity would be it a person, company, or nonprofit organization. Second, if you do feel like you need to stop shopping there, think about why. Is it just because you disagree with someone they indirectly support, or is it because you don’t think a company should be able to give to a political cause? If it’s the former, I can understand. If you’re doing it for the latter, though, as MoveOn.org suggests, I ask that you rethink your reasoning. Would you stop sending your kid to school in NJ because the teachers union there spent $6 million in ads against Chris Christie simply because you don’t think special interest groups should spend on political ads? Not supporting something because it backs someone you disagree with is one thing, but to get mad when a corporation gives money to a political cause while ignoring that unions do the same seems a bit hypocritical.