Yesterday, Paul Bedard
previewed
the launch of FreedomWorks’ long-discussed campaign against corporations that supported elements of Barack Obama’s agenda. Today, we get the Wilson Reasearch Strategies polling of “801 self-identified conservative voters” to show what happens to the favorability of those corporations when their treason is revealed. The numbers for Johnson & Johnson are extraordinary. Before conservatives know it lobbied for Obama bills, its favorables are 60/8. After, they reverse completely, to 8/61.
The new unpopularity of the companies isn’t as meaningful as the implication. If activists and pundits ask conservatives to start boycotting companies – and Bill O’Reilly’s been on a tear about GE for years – the numbers are there to make that work.
Bedard compared the effort here to the effort by civil rights leaders to boycott (or “shake down,” in Ken Timmerman’s phrase) companies. I wonder if can be more like the the immolation of brand ID in the black community, like the speedy way in which Cristal was termed a “racist” brand of champagne.
