Home Depot founder urges 67 million Americans to shop at Lowes
November 20, 2008 at 2:09 pm by Andisheh Nouraee in NewsFish-hoarder and Home Depot ex-CEO Bernie Marcus apparently wants Democrats to shop at Lowes.
Okay, maybe he didn’t quite put in those terms.
He did, however, say in an October conference call that pro-union Democratic policies would lead to the “demise of a civilization,” and that business owners who don’t support Republican senators should be shot — not exactly a welcoming message to the 67 million Americans who voted this month to put a Democratic U.S. Senator in the White House.
Author and Wall Street Journal columnist Thomas Frank explains:
And hear the lamentations of the billionaires. “This is the demise of a civilization,” moaned Bernie Marcus, cofounder and former CEO of The Home Depot, during an Oct. 17 conference call about card check. “This is how a civilization disappears. I’m sitting here as an elder statesman, and I’m watching this happen, and I don’t believe it.”
Mr. Marcus sketched out the doomsday scenario for his listeners, with unions going after what he called the “low hanging fruit” and proceeding to organize workers in industry after industry. He had taken it upon himself to notify the nation’s CEOs of the danger, but they were not yet grabbing their guns. “This is as important as anything that’s ever happened to these companies. And they’re not reacting, and they’re not fighting. The old time fighters are gone.”
But in the class war, as in the real deal, there are always ways of motivating the yellow. “If a retailer has not gotten involved with this, if he has not spent money on this election, if he has not sent money to Norm Coleman and these other guys,” Mr. Marcus said, apparently referring to Republican senators facing tough re-election fights, then those retailers “should be shot; should be thrown out of their goddamn jobs.”
(I can do it. AJC Political Insider Jim Galloway helped.)
November 20th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Bernie is absolutely right. The last thing our economy or a retailer needs or wants is workers with more money in their pockets. This mentality helps explain why Home Depot could employ a moron like Nardelli and not see any improvement in its stock price during the housing bubble!
November 21st, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Lowes_shopper – your “money in pockets” theory sure has worked out well for coal miners, textile workers, auto workers, steel workers …