Re Bob Anderson's comment:
I'll say that, to me, I don't mind so much that a business endorses a candidate
as much as I mind posting signs willy-nilly on vacant (as in, there's nobody to
stop me from posting here) properties. I think that it is unethical and is
really crass. Especially in my neighborhood, it feels like the people who are
doing the posting-- and by extension the candidates they represent-- really,
really don't care about us and our concerns. I am offended by it, and the fact
that I don't see that kind of behavior from my own candidates underscores my
belief that I have made a better choice.
When businesses advertise their political choices, which I admit is their right
to do, it makes my spending decisions easier in the small scale. For instance,
as I was leaving a well-known pizza place earlier this summer, I saw a Tea
Party poster ridiculing and belittling the President. Fair enough-- it's their
American right. I just wish I had known beforehand, so that I could have
avoided the dyspepsia afterward. I now know that I can avoid ever spending my
money there, and can let my like-minded friends and family members know as
well. The Free Market, and all that.
On a bigger scale, it becomes a different issue all together, especially when
the company has a history of caring about the community, and one sees an
about-face in their political leaning. It's still their right to do, as the
Supreme Court has said, but it's important to know when a big, local
corporation has begun to turn its back on the community. But again, a small
business advertising their political leanings is fair game, isn't it? I can
happily avoid bars that hate my local political choices once I know their
stance. It's the American Way!
To Tom Lageson's comment: You may be right, but I think it's a lot of work to
hang and post those things, and to go so far to try and generate a double
boomerang effect would be pretty silly because in the end, it's eyeballs on the
poster. No, I have seen this in every election cycle, and I don't think it's
any different this time. It stinks, and I wish they would show us more respect
than that. It really says a lot about how much we are valued in Dayton's Bluff
by the candidates who do that.