Boycott the Boycott

There is a movement underway to bring the economy to a standstill on Thursday during the Presidential inauguration ceremonies. People are being encouraged to call in sick, stay home, not to shop on Thursday, not to watch TV, not to make long distance phone calls and so forth.

The point of this is to draw attention to the fact that not everyone agrees with President Bush and that the money that is not put into the economy cannot be taxed, and therefore not be used to fight the ongoing war in Iraq, to support President Bush's programs and to show that Bush does not have a mandate. They are doing this to vent their rage at Bush.

Bush got 3.5 million more votes than Kerry did on Election Day. They're still talking about the thousands that were "disenfranchised" but the thousands still aren't enough to overcome the millions that went in Bush's favor.

So who is this boycott going to hurt first? It's going to hurt the people who can least afford a boycott: the working class. Will it hurt Bush personally? No. He knows he didn't have 100% of the vote.

This boycott will be as useless and as harmful to the average American worker as the so-called "gas-outs" were. The gas companies laughed and still made millions in profits.

A note to those who are considering participating in the boycott: find a better way to show your displeasure with the policies of the government but do it in a way that doesn't hurt people making minimum wage. Make a web site. Use your e-mail to express your displeasure (not in a threatening way, mind you). Protest. Make noise. Do whatever you need to to do to get it out of your system. Run for office.

But don't take it out on others who may have voted the same way you did.