Buy Blue

A buy blue meme has been going around for a few days, but I particularly like the format of this latest version. A few days ago Tre sent me a simple word document that listed companies that mostly donate to Republicans in red and companies that mostly donate to Democrats in blue. Yesterday I saw the list somewhat tackily laid out at freethenortheast.com. My sister just sent me BuyBlue.org has the neatest format and simplest incentive: we can't cast ballots anymore this year, but we can still spend strategically. I've heard that some people think this is actually a Trojan horse--a way of publicizing Democratic companies so that the apparently more numerous red voters will boycott them. But I think the more productive economies of Blue states have cash on their side in this one.

I also find it interesting that discount "low-end" retailers like Wal-Mart, Target, & Kmart donate Republican. When I was in 8th grade and we were playing a stockmarket game in math class, I decided that since the job-market was bad, people would do more shopping at stores like these as middle class workers found their incomes shrinking and were compelled to cut their quality expectations. My stock portfolio did well in that pre-Clinton era, and I think this idea still holds. The stores on the blue side have more to gain when middle class people have more money to spend. I'm pleasantly surprised that my taste generally runs to the blue side anyway; the main regret on the red side is Victoria's Secret & Express. Well, I don't have a lot of money to spend this Christmas, but if you do, I hope you'll consider "shopping blue."