I'm telling you, I'm so gob smacked, see me as slapped upside the side of some wall like a flattened out bugs bunny cartoon. I've been around quite awhile, been a business woman most of that time. And, most of that time it was considered common sense to keep your political pickle in your pocket during "store hours," --- let the world argue outside your profit zone, right?
But not anymore. Welcome, all of us, to the reality TV world of today's business owners, those job creators who next thing we know, will be competing sans shirts for whose the brawniest. SIGH. At least the Donald will not participate, as even he knows this would be folly.
Seriously, what up with these business owners who think they can afford to antagonize their customers? Seems to me it only takes the most rudimentary intelligence to figure out that in this divided country you've got abso-freakin'-lutely NOTHING TO GAIN, and everything to lose by shooting your mouth off about your feelies when it comes to politics.
Follow me below the ever renamed orange thang to discuss just how silly our "job creators" can get.
So. Let's start with Mr. Papa Johns. We might need to extend him just a bit of rope, as he's baby faced, and apparently, baby brained. He's come to his success early in life, which means he has no idea how hard it can be, or how unlucky you can get. And yet still, raise your hand if you think the pizza delivery business isn't just really, really, competitive. Well, that didn't take long to count.
But that doesn't stop Mr. Papa John from letting every progressive and or Democrat from here to the great beyond know that every time we order his pizza we put money in someone's pocket we don't agree politically with, not to mention someone we are coming to really dislike from getting to know too darn well---when gee, wasn't it only months ago we had no freaking idea who he was, and could eat his mediocre pizza in peace?
SIGH, yeah, well, not so much anymore. My son ordered a PJ's pizza the other night, unbeknown to me. I saw the box in the morning and informed him Papa was no longer welcome in our house.
He said, "Geeeeeeeeeeeeeeez Mom, I like his pizza, can't you get over his politics?" I said, "No, I can't. And some day you'll understand why." But truth is, I can get over his politics, what the hell do I care if he's a right wing schmuck? What I can't get past is him shoving his political beliefs in my face so brazenly and still expecting me to order his pizza.
Let's move on to John Metz, that owner of 30 some Denny's restaurants who informed us we would pay a 5% "Obamacare surcharge" at his restaurants, and we could feel free to take it out of his wait staff's tips. What a guy!
And that has not gone well. Mr. Metz has gotten the hook, big time, from the CEO of Denny's corporate, and was forced to barf out some version of "blah, blah, blah, not really" that still won't stop the hurt to Denny's brand for a time to come. But who cares, because John Metz had his go at free speech, hurting so many other Denny's outlets and their employees in the process, but sit back "you people," don't get in MY MINE ME ME ME ME's way.
Then there's the right wing, birther icon Donald Trump, presented for our holiday pleasure by Macy's, who borrowed Kris Kringle from "The Miracle on 34th Street," so that the Donald could bloviate at him. Over a half million angry sigs on a petition later, the CEO of Macy's tells us he's sticking with the Donald, because again, it's a free speech thing. SIGH. Free to be dumber than dirt. Another store's door slammed in my face.
And that's exactly how I feel about it---these guys have slammed the doors of their stores in my face. Look, I don't need to buy every last darn thing from a progressive, that's not the point here.
What I DO NEED, is for ANY business establishment to respect me as a customer ENOUGH to know that they would be wise not to shove their politics down my throat, and I will return the favor. That they would be wise not to chose an overtly political icon like the Donald and expect me to fa lalalalala right into their store or buy any bunk about how Macy's doesn't necessarily agree with the people they choose to put in their own fucking ads.
And there was Target giving to that anti gay rights group, and that silly Whole Foods guy who told me I didn't need a better health care system, I just needed to shop at his ridiculously expensive store, and, and and...
As it is, I try to shop small and local, but there are times one needs more. Nevertheless, I'll be damned if I'll cross the thresh hold of some baffoon who thinks I'm dumb enough to think I deserve a lecture on his politics along with his pizza.
Yes, boycotts may a dime a dozen in these crazy days, but count me in on every one of them where some business person is arrogant, stupid and craven enough to think he knows better than decades of his ancestors who are rolling in their graves trying to shout to the full moon above ground that you don't mix business with politics and expect anything less than a kamakaze cocktail.