On Wednesday, there was an article at the top of the Rec list entitled "Home Depot Founder to CEOs: You 'Should Be Shot'". It talks about a man named Bernie Marcus, who was one of the co-founders of The Home Depot in 1979. Apparently, he said something stupid today- that any CEOs who didn't support the GOP "should be shot". Obviously, no need for me go on about what's stupid about that statement. But the level of knee-jerk, irresponsible reaction to that statement today made me remember why I'm a former member of Free Republic and RedState, and the Republican Party as a whole.
I don't know... I always held us on a higher level of responsibility than those jerks. We're supposed to be the ones interested in discourse, not demagoguery- right?
Here's the backstory, folks. Bernie Marcus hasn't been an active member of Home Depot management since 1999, and officially entirely off the books since 2002. He and Arthur Blank, the other founder of Home Depot, cashed in their stock options and bade the company good bye. They had to- the board forced them to, because otherwise they couldn't hire their "star" player of the time, Jack Welch-protege Bob Nardelli. And since Arthur and Bernie had been running the company into the ground, well, they decided to leave on an up-note. A lot of the old-timers still working for the company harbor quite a grudge against them for their stupider decisions (which are too many to enumerate here). So we're at least six-years removed from him having any say in the direction The Home Depot took, if not almost a decade.
So I saw ranting and raving, decrying of Home Depot as an illegitimate business, people calling the local stores to complain. Give me a break, guys. I remember having discussions about bombing Iraq back into the Stone Age with some of my relatives and Republican-friends. "GLASS PARKING LOT!" was their battle cry- I mean, Saddam Hussein was evil, so it stood to reason every individual Iraqi was as well, right? This is the same sort of friggin' attitude I saw here. And even that analogy doesn't stick entirely, since at least Saddam was actually leading the country. This is a very scary attitude to witness.
It seems like part of this backlash might have some sort of Union component to it. The author of the diary referenced above apparently works for SEIU; I emailed him and asked him to address at least a few of the points I'm making here in his diary, so people would distinguish between the company and the man. Sadly, I was told it wasn't appropriate to make those distinctions because Bernie was "using (Home Depot) as part of his credibility". Yeah, of course he is- but that's stupid, because he doesn't have any more claim to speak for Home Depot now than I do for DailyKos because I diary here.
Let me just lay this out, so everyone understands. If you have legitimate beefs with Home Depot- they screwed up your refrigerator order!- I understand, I got to witness thousands in great detail. Email me, I can help you resolve them. Most Home Depot associates really want to help resolve issues so the customers are happy. If you're upset they don't use Unions, or that they have resisted efforts at unionization, fine. I got to see some of that in great detail, too- that's for another diary. But don't use this as some sort of rallying cry against Home Depot, or for calling your local store to complain, or to stop shopping there based off of this issue. The only people you're going to hurt is the individual store associates; the part-timers trying to work and go to school, or getting a second job to support the household, or the retiree trying to supplement social security. They are the real people that actually give a damn when you need a new P-trap, or are trying to decide if you can save a few bucks and tackle that ceramic tile job yourself. They're not mindless automotons. Since payroll is the most easily controlled expense at the store level, and they don't have to guarentee part-timers hours like they do the full-timers, the hurt on an individual store will go there immediately.
No, that's not economic blackmail. It's longstanding company policy, and I know it's asinine. It devolves into a vicious circle of cutting hours, not enough salespeople on the floor, customer service suffers, sales go down, hours are cut... so forth and so on. But the point of the matter is that's the people who are going to get hurt by this are those part-timers, not Bernie. He cashed his chips in a long time ago. He doesn't give a damn who does or doesn't shop at Home Depot. I worked for Home Depot for six years; I was an assistant store manager; and the people I worked with were like a family to me. Don't punish them, please.
One of my favorite argument to use against the PUMAs was, when they were railing against Obama's "links" to the Oil Industry and the Banking Industry (you know- the janitor at Exxon-Mobil, and the secretary at Bank of America, who are are obviously evil) was that Obama had received, literally, hundreds of thousands of dollars from Big Home Improvement! I even suckered Alegre in with that line! It was beautiful, because Home Depot associates donated more to the Obama campaign than several of those "evil" companies behind- all information freely available at the FEC website.
The 24-hour news cycle is bad enough without us here at DailyKos devolving into a hysterical mob when something like this happens. Nuance isn't as fun, I know, but it's because of a complete lack of nuance and understanding that I, and so many other conservatives and former-Republicans, have willingly thrown in our lot with Democrats, and communities like DailyKos. To be sure, similar articles and comments could be found on MyDD, FireDogLake, HuffPo, FARK, etc... but we're supposed to be the example to follow, right?
That's all I've got to say. Peace out. I'm gonna go watch another episode of "Go, Diego, Go!", all the songs from which I've sadly now memorized.
UPDATE- Some people seem to think this is a GBCW diary; hardly. I love this place. But it doesn't mean I won't call us out on something if I think it's wrong.