WalMart has been the scourge of liberals and progressives for a long time now. They've angered us so many times over, whether by low-paying, poverty-inducing jobs, no health insurance, union-busting, decimating small businesses in the communities they spread into....I could go on and on here. Well for years and years the corporate behemoth has given the majority of its campaign and lobbying dollars to Republicans, they are even directing their store managers towards McCain.
Yet they aren't stupid, they know change is happening and the Congress is solidly Democratic and that is why they are starting to give more to Democrats than Republicans. We as concerned citizens, must act and force/shame/tell our elected officials not to take that money. That is why I am telling Charlie Rangel to give back that money made off the backs of the working poor.
From Working Life:
Wal-Mart has at least 80 class-action lawsuitsin 41 states pending against it.
Wal-Mart illegally denied full rest or meal breaks in violation of state wage and hour laws--a violation that may cost the company $2 billion.
Wal-Mart abuses women, and is the defendants in the biggest sex discrimination case in history.
Wal-Mart is a habitual tax-dodger.
Wal-Mart's heirs buy expensive paintings but won't give their workers decent health care.
Wal-Mart sued a disabled women, demanding she give back money she won in a settlement.
Wal-Mart exploits children in Mexico.
Wal-Mart lead a global corporate lobbying campaign to block a very modest improvement in Chinese labor laws--because Wal-Mart's business model depends on exploiting cheap labor, here and abroad.
And that's just a sample. Why would any political leader, who represents him or herself to be a defender of the working person, want to be affiliated with such a company?
The answer is clear: money. The Democratic Party is almost even with the Republican Party in the money it receives from Wal-Mart, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The Center's data, published in an article in today's Wall Street Journal (I'll come back to that article in a moment), shows that 12 years ago, Wal-Mart's PAC gave 98 percent of its money to Republicans. In the current cycle, Democrats have received 48 percent of Wal-Mart's PAC expenditures.
In that article above, the list of Democrats is atrocious. All of them should stand up for the principles of the party that represents workers, if those aren't part of their own moral compass to begin with. That is why I call on New York's most powerful Congressman to give back that $5,500 contribution....and my own Congresswoman, Carolyn Maloney to give back the $1,000 they gave her as well.
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