I thought today I would address an essay by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers about Publix (https://ciw-online.org/blog/2021/02/publix-radicals-in-the-heartland/). God knows I'd rather not keep talking about the issue which has made the source of my family's income a flashpoint for people on both sides of the most volatile issue in the country--what happened on January 6--because it's no fun to have your livelihood the focal point for a bunch of people who have blood in their eye. But ignoring a challenge to the thesis of my essay would be dishonest, and in this case, the challenge is being made by people I respect.

I receive the Coalition of Immokalee Workers' newsletter, because I support their aims (one of the many ironic things about my position). So it was from them that I got the news that the Wall Street Journal published an article attacking Publix as, essentially, a nest of extremists. (Just to clarify, the "people I respect" referred to above are the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, not the Wall Street Journal). The article is behind a paywall, and I'm not subscribing to the Wall Street Journal, so I'm relying on the report given by CIW. Here's what CIW had to say about the situation:

At first blush, Publix’s defense sounds perfectly reasonable — and for many of us, maybe even familiar. The 2020 election, set against the backdrop of the increasing radicalization of former President Trump’s most avid supporters, has deeply divided families across the country. In all honesty, who among us doesn’t have a sibling or a cousin lost down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories about stolen elections, force-fed lie after lie by opportunistic politicians and the media ecosystem that supports them? The only difference between our family members and Mrs. Fancelli is that she has hundreds of thousands of disposable dollars to spend broadcasting her crazy theories, and convening a gathering of the kind of people who would take violent action in the advancement of those theories.

To hold Publix accountable for the sins of the founding family’s daughter, simply because she is family, would be without basis whatsoever. Rather, to know whether Publix also supports the narrative that the election was stolen from former President Trump — the narrative that animated the “Stop the Steal” rally and drove the subsequent violence of January 6th in DC — one would have to look into Publix’s own political actions, or, as Publix is a corporation, its donations.

I'm happy to see that, just as I agree with the CIW that Publix should have long since signed on to its Fair Food agreement, that the CIW agrees that you don't condemn people for the actions of their family members. This is an important thing to remember in a country that is, in my opinion, already well in the grip of authoritarianism. Nor does the CIW claim that you should condemn Publix because Fancelli happens to own a large block of stock. It's not a controlling interest and she's not on the board--and the board made no decision to support the Jan 6 rally.

CIW says that, however, Publix is a dangerously radical organization nonetheless. They cite the argument made by Judd Legum, an investigative reporter, in his article "Publix Accountability:"

Publix's statement [that Fancelli is not involved with their business operations], while technically accurate, obscures the larger issue. Publix has provided hundreds of thousands of dollars in financial support to state and federal officials who set the stage for the January 6 riots by attempting to overturn the results of the presidential election — or encouraging others to do so.

https://popular.info/p/publix-accountability

OK. Let's see what you found:

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) aggressively pushed the lie that the presidential election was stolen from Trump. DeSantis appeared on Fox News on November 5 and suggested that people who live in states like Pennsylvania and Michigan contact their legislators and urge them to throw out the results of the election and declare Trump the winner.

Yeah, Ron DeSantis is a real peach. My initial hope that he was less crazy than Rick Scott has long since faded.

Publix responded to DeSantis' comment by donating $50,000 to DeSantis on December 7 and another $50,000 to DeSantis on December 31. (Direct corporate donations are permissible in Florida.) While Publix says the events that occurred on January 6 "do not represent the values, work or opinions of Publix Super Markets," it had no problem showering the elected officials who laid the foundation for that day with cash. Nor will Publix say if it will continue donating to such politicians in the future.

De Santis refused to acknowledge that Trump lost, and Publix continued to give him money. I say "continued," because Publix had already (as I said in an earlier essay), given large sums to De Santis. This is the most damning fact I've found in Mr. Lugum's article. And I'd say Publix needs to be held accountable for that. I still don't think it makes Publix Supermarkets, Inc, into a nest of domestic terrorists and neo-Nazi radicals; as I said in my last essay, Publix also, according to Open Secrets, gave money to both Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. But the company's affiliation with De Santis needed to cease some time ago. Mr. Lugum suggests (as many have) that this was a situation of tit for tat, because de Santis made Publix the sole distributor of COVID vaccines in Palm Beach County (just in Palm Beach County, which seems a little strange; if that was the tit for tat, Publix needs a better corrupt lobbyist to get more goodies out of our corrupt governor).

A Popular Information analysis reveals that, in the 2020 cycle alone, Publix donated $127,000 to 43 members of Congress who objected to the Electoral College vote. Publix also donated $10,000 to former Senator David Perdue (R-GA) who said he would vote to object to the Electoral College but was not a member of the Senate on January 6.

All right. Here's where the argument goes a bit awry--though the larger point, in my opinion, still stands. Lugum says that "in the 2020 cycle alone" Publix made donations to all these Republicans who refused to accept Biden's election. But the "2020 cycle" ended on Election Day. Obviously, none of these politicians had refused to accept Biden's election before Election Day; obviously, none of them could have "laid the groundwork" for the Jan 6 rally--or the subsequent riot--at the time Publix made the donations. Basically, what I'm seeing here is that Publix is a largely Republican-supporting corporation, funneling lots of money to the right wing, like its primary competitors Wal-Mart and Amazon. Target, also, has a history of funneling lots of money to Republicans, both directly and through PACs, though apparently the 2016 election was a bridge too far for them, and they backed off their donations to Republicans after Trump became President--which is what it takes, nowadays, to be on the side of the angels.

The idea that a corporation can lavish money on public officials or candidates for public office, as long as they're not lavishing money on Trump supporters, is not an idea I support. Frankly, I think all corporate donations to politicians should be illegal. In what sense is it different from bribery? Nor do I understand why it's been OK for decades (apparently), for corporations to funnel massive amounts of money to the particular politicians who have been driving America relentlessly to the right, politicians who arguably have no regard for the Bill of Rights or the rule of law

but now, retroactively, the exact same behaviors have been redefined as the support of domestic terrorism. I say retroactively because most of these contributions were made before any of the Stop the Steal's dangerously toxic nonsense took place. I see an ugly idea in its infancy: the notion that pouring corporate donations into the coffers of some politicians is patriotism, while pouring them into the coffers of other politicians is terrorism.

What will get lost if this idea grows to adulthood is the notion that no corporation should be dumping money into the coffers of any politician. There should be no such thing as a corporate donation to a political campaign. It's never anything but a growth medium for corruption. And arguably, corporate media is one of the main drivers of that corruption. The cost of broadcast media is the most expensive item in any campaign's budget. The appetite for big-money donations is, at least in part, due to the cost of broadcasting campaign ads on television and the radio. A good first step for stopping big-money donations would be to provide free and highly publicized coverage to all candidates for federal and state public office on public television and radio stations. If it were possible to make it illegal to broadcast campaign coverage on for-profit corporate media, I'd be pulling for that. Perhaps it could be made illegal for media companies to provide media coverage of the same candidates whose campaigns they fund.

I agree with Mr. Lugum and CIW that Publix needs to sever its ties with Ron De Santis yesterday. No, scratch that: Publix needs to sever its ties with De Santis last year. I understand enough of public relations to get that you're never supposed to do anything which suggests that you're admitting to wrongdoing, but Publix also needs to join the other corporations which have pledged not to support politicians who refused to accept Biden's election. I say that even though I believe that the Democratic primary of 2020, like the Democratic primary of 2016, was rigged (if you want to read my argument about the 2020 Democratic primary, you can find it here: https://caucus99percent.com/content/outside-asylum-32), and therefore, the results of the 2020 election are just as compromised as the results of the 2016 election, and the 2004 election, and the 2000 election. In other words, we're in the shit, and, morally, it's not going to do much good for Publix to refuse to pour large sums of money into the hands of a dangerous subsection of the right-wing bastards who rule us all, especially since you can bet that all this will be used to make it look good and clean and righteous to pour large sums of money into the hands of all the other right-wing bastards. I disagree that giving money to people before the 2020 election is the same thing as supporting the Jan 6 attack on the Capitol. But there's no good reason for Publix to be affiliated with these people now, and there's no good reason for Publix to affiliate themselves with such people in the future. Just sever ties, Publix. And while you're at it, sign on to the Immokalee workers' Fair Food agreement.

I'll leave the last word for Leslie, a commenter on Mr. Lugum's article:

LeslieFeb 1
Companies, corporations and millionaires; that is how most of our politicians are funded AND elected. Until we put a stop to this and decide to fund people who want to run for office through our taxes, in limited amounts, for a specific period of time (say 6 months of campaigning) we will never, ever have fair and honest representation.