Post-Election: Keep Voting Values with Dollars
Published on Wednesday, December 15, 2004 by CommonDreams.org
Post-Election: Keep Voting Values with Dollars
by Karen Landers
So, like Norris recommended, I began. Not necessarily in the order she suggested, but I began. I typed in www.opensecrets.org. I clicked on “soft money” and typed in names of corporations. I was amazed to see that so many of the fast food companies I’ve patronized are themselves or have employees who are heavy “red” contributors. I typed in every single company I could think of, mostly stunned, even if contributions were made to Democrats as well, that Republicans received substantially more money. I've sipped big-name colas, but now, I'm on a search for a politically potable alternative.
Continuing on with my Web-based search, I typed in www.buyblue.org, which I came across recently via www.dailykos.com. The buyblue site had just been updated, and it now includes a Christmas-handy, “red” and “blue” list of businesses. I sent an e-mail to friends to inform them of buyblue. I thought further … “If there’s a ‘buy blue’ place on-line, there must be a ‘buy green’ one too.” I typed in www.buygreen.com and perused their site for businesses. I called the Green Party headquarters and asked if they had lists of green merchants on their website (www.gp.org). Though they don’t, I was referred to www.coopamerica.org, which sends out the Green Directory for free when one purchases a membership in coopamerica. From its Web site, I linked to www.responsibleshopper.org, which provides rather comprehensive on-line profiles of many companies as well. I also thought back to www.freecycle.org, which allows community members to barter goods for free.
My next on-line pursuit in examining how to enhance dollar-based voting brought me in contact with socially responsible investing (SRI). I had heard of this term years ago, but now, it took on yet new political urgency as I visited sites like www.socialinvest.org (providing an overview of the SRI territory), www.trilliuminvest.com (an investment management corporation) and www.workingassets.com among others. The Web sites devoted to SRI are too numerous to mention. The admittedly limited report of my exploration and education in this process represents but one infinitesimal approach, like a small drop of water in an ocean, to becoming informed and undertaking more progressive financial actions. It is by no means exhaustive, but illustrates one person’s modest journey on developing a different course of action.
And tangentially, I remembered Jacob Holdt, whose American Pictures documentary I saw in college. He continues now still to tour the world with his giant-screen-mounted photo essay show, which presents a poignant sociological profile of our culture (www.american-pictures.com). Like Michael Moore (www.michaelmoore.com) and his works, the material vividly illustrates the net effects of policies, attitudes, decisions, economics and practices between the private and the public, the individual and the collective, and the nation and the globe. Their work (and many other artists’) analyzes issues in such a way that it enables and empowers the spectator to engage in questions and debates about conditions that have yielded our current social results.
Reflecting intently on the notion that my expenditures and general financial portfolio are also “political investment capital” in products, it became much clearer that the greenbacks I spend can wind up turning a kind of political color that might eventually support policies which wouldn’t reflect or defend my values, and which, like Norris said, I’d wind up, circularly, having contributed to.
With millions of people speaking up with their dollars, however, it’s clear that change is possible, and inevitable, by being diligent individual “political investors” and stewards of personal capital.
There is undoubtedly an already extensive network of people practicing progressive-based buying and investing, and it looks as if that’s now grown by at least one more person! Already, in such a short period of time, my simple individual actions have influenced people I know. Friends and family now have a copy of buyblue.org’s Christmas list, so they can share it with others they know, making it quite likely that some of them will alter at least a fraction of their spending habits.
Karen Landers is an editor, writer and graduate student in English. Her e-mail is bbd313@yahoo.com.
Copyright © 2004, Karen Landers. All rights reserved.