Buy Blue or Red

The election is long over, but evidently some people just can’t get it out of their system. I read an article on Fox New’s web site about buyblue.org. This site list major companies that have contributed to political campaigns and tells the consumer which side (Democrat or Republican) received the money and how much. As the sites name suggest, they encourage the consumer to perchance from Blue (Democrat supporting) companies, although the site is just as good of a resource for Conservatives wanting to purchase from Republican supporting companies. Fox News also reports that Buyblue hopes to become an advertised selling point from Blue companies, “Eventually, we're hoping corporations will refer to us in their advertisements because it will be a selling point for them.” Personally, I find it very unlikely that many major corporation will want to openly discuss their political leanings and risk alienating 50% of the country. I find it even more unlikely that this website will have any long term effect on sales. First, the country is pretty evenly split between democrats and republicans so the effects will probably cancel themselves out. Second, I suspect that most the people who will rally in support of blue companies are the more vocal/radical among each party. Religious right, college students, etc… These groups aren’t exactly known as the big spenders. Thirdly, what matters to most Americans that I know is the bottom line. They don’t spends a lot on time seeking out Made in America labels. Instead, they look for cheep prices and value. So, if they don’t care where the product is made, I doubt they will care what political party benefits from their sale. That said, the information provide is quite interesting (at least to me) and appears to be somewhat anti-intuitive. What I would really like is to know the motives behind the specific contributions.

A few other sites, chosetheblue.com: Similar to buyblue.org. Infact, buyblue.org sites chosetheblue.com as a resource.

terminal3.net: This appears to be the blog of Raven Brooks, “President” of buyblue.org. It appears to have gone private as a result of the buyblue press coverage.

The Duff Wire’s thoughts on the paradox of Microsoft actually being a blue company.