Even Holiday Shopping Has Gotten Political

Some Put Money Where Their Politics Are
By Jeffrey Marcus
Special to The Washington PostSunday, December 19, 2004;

Raven Brooks is making his Christmas list, but he is less concerned with what to buy than where to shop.

Brooks is one of a small group of frustrated Democrats who met while commiserating online after President Bush defeated Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.). Disenchanted and desperate for a voice, they started BuyBlue.org. The two-week-old Web site lists the political contributions of major companies to encourage people to shop at stores and buy products from businesses that supported Democratic candidates.

To read the rest, click here. It's from the Washington Post( registration req'd but free).

The point of the story is that even web sites that claim to know which stores are "blue" conflict with each other about which stores are "red" or "blue".

Jay Dix of Slate found an interesting piece in the LA Times recently whereby the "Red" shoppers reports that in North Carolina and elsewhere, conservative Christians are putting their money where their mouths are, launching campaigns to boycott stores that greet shoppers with "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas." "It is apartheid in reverse—the majority is being bullied by the minority," says the pastor who organized the boycott. "If they want the gold, frankincense and myrrh, they should acknowledge the birth of the child." One store owner was glad to be given permission to say "Merry Christmas" again. "Christians are out of the closet," he said.