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VIA DIGITAL JOURNAL:

Fox pundit Glenn Beck and Whole Foods founder and CEO John Mackey have been targeted for boycotts by angry left-leaning opponents as of late. Now the boycotters themselves are being boycotted. That blowback has cost GEICO 6,500 customers.

Ah, the boycott. A long and honored tradition in America, and perhaps one of the most effective democratic weapons We The People have at our disposal. Boycotts allow us to make big statements to for-profit businesses, entities and persons by voting with our wallets, feet, signs, raised voices and undesired mass presence outside said business establishments, or even residences. Boycotts were a favored weapon of Prop 8 opponents against supporters in the aftermath of that measure’s win in California. The Dixie Chicks were boycotted by many Americans over their “ashamed” remarks about President Bush to a London audience in March 2003.

In essence, what a boycott does is allow segments of the public to say to a for-profit business, person or entity, “What you’re doing sucks! And until it stops sucking, we’re going to make your life suck, too!” If you have any doubts, ask the owner of the El Coyote Restaurant in Los Angeles. He was boycotted by gays without relent after it was discovered his daughter donated $100 to Prop 8 proponents, and despite the fact El Coyote employees, many gay, raised $500 to help repeal Prop 8. No law says boycotts have to be sane. You just need the numbers to make real problems for the business in order to get their attention. That seems to have been the case recently for Glenn Beck and Whole Foods founder and CEO John Mackey

Read more here.