The Liberal Boycott Machine Goes After ALEC

Kevin Glass | April 13, 2012 6:49 AM

Liberal group Color of Change has begun a campaign against advocacy organization the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

Color of Change, co-founded by Van Jones and James Rucker, is ginning up opposition to ALEC based on the Council's support for voter ID and "stand your ground" laws. ALEC has long been a target of ire on the left, with liberals at the Nation magazine and the Center for Media and Democracy (which has ties to George Soros) launching a campaign to "expose" ALEC. Now Van Jones' organization has loaded its guns as well, organizing mass boycotts.

Unfortunately, Van Jones' crusade has been effective. McDonald's, Coca Cola and the Gates Foundation are amongst the large groups cutting ties to ALEC in recent days. Michelle Malkin has more:

Color of Change is ratcheting up pressure on ATT, one of ALEC's corporate board members, to abandon the group or be forever branded as racists with blood on their hands. These campaigns are of a piece with the pressure campaigns against advertisers of conservative talk radio giant Rush Limbaugh. (Not coincidentally, many of the same groups are involved in both.) The Hush Rush mob has succeeded in finagling anti-free speech declarations from the likes of Arby's restaurant chain and Walgreens drugstores -- two companies that have never been sponsors of Limbaugh's show, but which announced last week that they won't advertise in his time slot on local station ad buys. Note: These are bit cancellations of an ad buy; there's no loss of money. It's pure, progressive gesture politics, astro-turfed by Soros-funded groups, to create the fake appearance of an anti-Rush advertising stampede -- and ultimately, to chill conservative dissent.
McDonald's, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Intuit, Kraft, Arby's and Walgreens have shown their true colors: appeasement yellow. It's time for conservatives to stand their ground and stop showing these corporate cowards their money.

Progressives have smelled blood in the water recently. When sponsors started fleeing the Rush Limbaugh show in the wake of the Sandra Fluke non-scandal, they decided it was high time to go after other legitimate liberty-loving institutions. ALEC is the most recent victim of the progressive boycott campaign - and unfortunately, they've scored a few victories. It's important to continue to support the companies that do support legitimate conservative causes.