March 15, 2006 7:40 AM

Give us your tired, your poor, your horribly ignorant and obtuse....

Anti-gay group boycotts Ford

“Ford has every right to give hundreds of thousands of dollars to groups promoting homosexual marriage. But those who oppose homosexual marriage have every right not to buy automobiles made by Ford Motor Company,” the AFA said in a statement on its Web site.

Ah, the boycott…the time-honored weapon of choice among activists and zealots on both the Right and the Left. When cleverly employed, a boycott can be a simple and effective way to express displeasure and the refusal to do business with one who displeases you.

Of course, when employed by intolerant nutjobs like Donald Wildmon and his American Family Association (whom I’m not about to glorify with a link), a boycott is simply a way to play the “LOOK AT ME…I’M A DUMB@$$!!” card. Wildmon and the AFA are, of course, free to do business (or not) with whomever they choose. What I cannot abide is their “You hate [insert name of despised minority class here] less then I/we do, therefore you are evil” attitude. Insufficient hatred of a group of people seems like a damn poor reason to stage a boycott, doesn’t it? Unless, of course, you really WANT to come off as a collection of narrow-minded, hate-filled dickweeds…an appellation that certainly fits Wildmon and his collection of like-minded nutjobs, eh?

How about I just lay this out as plainly as possible, so that even those of you who are members of the American Family Association can understand it? Ford Motor Co. does not support, promote, or condone homosexuality. Neither does Ford Motor Co. oppose homosexuality. Ford Motor Co. is in the business of selling cars. It doesn’t matter if you are gay, straight, red, green…or even a Packers fan. They want to sell you one of their cars. That is how they stay in business. Frankly, Ford doesn’t much care about who buys their cars; they just want to sell as many of them as possible. A rather dense friend of mind summed this up rather succinctly one day when he opined that Ford would sell a car “to any limp dick with a decent credit score and enough disposable cash for a down payment.” Yup, that pretty well sums it up, all right. Ford- like any other company- advertises in all sorts of place…BECAUSE THEY WANT TO SELL THEIR CARS TO PEOPLE. Capice?

The Tupelo, Mississippi-based American Family Association first threatened a boycott in May, but suspended the move in June after several Ford dealers stepped in to broker a settlement.

In December, Ford decided to pull advertising for its Jaguar and Land Rover luxury brands from gay publications, but then reversed course after coming under fire from gay-rights activists for having conceded to pressure from the AFA.

Right; Ford discovered that it was in a “damned-if-you, damned-if-you-don’t” situation, so they decided to go back to what they do best- selling cars. No business wants to do anything that alienates potential buyers. Ford made the initial mistake of caving into the goons from AFA to begin with. Once they did that, they quickly realized that by venturing into the political arena, they were decidedly outside of their comfort zone. Of course, a bell, once rung, cannot be unrung, and Ford’s return to something resembling neutrality was far too little far too late.

In declaring a one-year boycott of Ford, the AFA cited the car maker’s sponsorship of gay-pride events in the United States and Britain and its practice of requiring employees to undergo diversity training.

“The goal of every homosexual organization supported by Ford is to get homosexual marriage legalized,” the AFA said.

Ergo, Ford Motor Co. is part and parcel of the dreaded, insidious Homosexual Agenda. WTF? Has Donald Wildmon and his ilk lost all perspective? Or are they so craven that they will stop at nothing and trample anything,anyone, any institution they happen to perceive as being insufficiently hateful of homosexuals and homosexuality? (And these knuckle-dragging trolls call themselves “Christians”??)

The biggest problem here is that by initially capitulating to AFA, Ford created a situation in which AFA now feels as if they have achieved a degree of political power and influence. Now they can influence the direction and economic future of one of the world’s largest multinational companies. They have their foot in the door, so to speak, and now AFA is puffed up with a degree of self-importance they previously didn’t enjoy…and they’re not about to give that up without exacting their pound of flesh.

The controversy comes at a difficult time for Ford, which is struggling to reverse a slide in market share and return its core automotive operations to profitability.

Ford spokeswoman Kathleen Vokes said in response to the boycott announcement, “Ford is proud of its tradition of treating all with respect and we remain focused on that we do best, building and selling innovative cars and trucks worldwide.”

The lesson learned the hard way by Ford is one that all companies could stand to learn. Businesses venture into the world of partisan politics at their own peril. Whether you piss off groups like AFA on one side or pro-gay groups on the other, agreeing to cave into partisan demands is a one-way ticket to a very bad, and ultimately unwinnable outcome. You’d think that the people at Ford would understand this. Apparently, MBAs and Ivy League pedigrees are no guarantee of common sense, eh?

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on March 15, 2006 7:40 AM.

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