Target's Off-Target Lobbying Effort

The big retailer Target put itself in the crosshairs after it became one of the first big companies to exercise the new political muscle handed corporations by the U.S. Supreme Court under its Citizens United ruling. On July 6th, 2010, Target $150,000 to Minnesota Forward (MN Forward), a political action committee that backs Republican candidates. After accepting the donation, MN Forward put out an ad supporting Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer, who in 2007 authored a constitutional amendment to prohibit same-sex marriage and civil unions. Emmer also tries to change the language of bills so that same-sex couples cannot benefit from them. In one example, Emmer sought to replace the word "parents" with "mother and father" in a bill to create standards for surrogate motherhood. Gay rights organizations were offended by Target's donation and have called for boycotts and organized protests to draw attention to Target's donation. One such protest was a musical "flashmob" that descended on a Target retail store to perform the new song, "Target Ain't People," to raise awareness of Target's efforts to influence Minnesota's elections. Target officials ran to call the police to stop the musical invasion as customers danced to the beat -- and got the message that corporations aren't people, and shouldn't possess the unlimited ability to influence elections.

Comments

What a fabulous musical flashmob! I fear Target is the first of many corporations that will work to buy our elections. It's bad for democracy. Keep writing those ditties! And how about a t-shirt! I'd wear one.

I fail to see a problem here. Target has the right to fund any cause they want,just like you amd I.If you don't like what Target is doing,boycott their stores and/or write a letter to company headquarters. Better yet ,make a contribution to the Democratic Party and show them Target was wrong.

To see the danger you would have to realize that if a corporation were truly a person that person has only one goal in life and that is to make profits at all costs...this person would probably be jailed or committed to a mental institution as a psychopath. Do you have the deep pockets of a corporation like Target? I would suspect not so therefore Target has a much larger voice than you or most individuals would have. The problem is that corporations were give the same status as a "person" and it was done by accident and improper interpretation in the court system. Here's where it supposedly started: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Clara_County_v._Southern_Pacific_Railroad