Tea Partiers Plan Boycott Of Companies Sympathetic To ‘Socialist Agenda’

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Last week, we told you about the tea party movement’s next national target — American businesses believed to be supporting the “socialist agenda” of Democratic politicians. On Jan. 20, the tea partiers plan to boycott these corporations during their “National Day of Strike.”

The plan is controversial among some conservatives, who worry the tea partiers might alienate their natural allies. However, the strike’s organizer, Allen Hardage, told TPMDC that these critics are missing the central point of the plan.

“Here we are exposing the agenda of some of the most widely known companies in America and letting the consumer decide,” he said. “If a corporation decides to jump into politics to the tune of millions of dollars, then they need to expect that they will alienate some of their customers.”

Hardage wouldn’t get into specifics about which companies the national strike will target, or exactly how the strike will work. But he suggested the protest will be large, and it will be nationwide.

“Tea party groups around the country will work together to direct massive attention to the businesses, in a legal manner, that are the largest supporters of the most liberal members of Congress as well as those that support extreme liberal media outlets that have gone after the citizens represented in the movement,” he said. “We will not be releasing the target companies list until [Jan. 20].”

The idea for the strike first came up during a Tea Party conference call, Hardage said. Tea party organizers were “frustrated that, despite a huge turn out over the last year, Congress is ignoring them, and most of the main stream media is biased in their mocking and marginalizing them,” Hardage said.

“The question is that if the elected officials ignore you what do you do to exercise your right to self governance?” he said. “So we decided to hold a National Day of Strike where we go after the large donors of the people pushing this radical agenda.”

Hardage said that the tea partiers aren’t telling businesses what to do — which has been a criticism of the strike from some anti-regulation conservatives — but simply giving consumers information about the companies they choose to give their money to.

“We are not forcing anyone to do or not do anything,” he said. “The average consumer or investor is most of the time completely unaware that they may be inadvertently supporting the government takeover of health care or cap and trade or bank bailouts.”

“If a company throws money into a candidate or elected official’s campaign,” he said, Jan. 20 “will let them know not only who those companies are, but also who they can patronize that shares their beliefs.”

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