Target: Target

Target and a few other Minnesota-based companies have contributed to Minnesota Forward, a PAC running ads in support of the campaign of Republican Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer. These companies fear the aggravation of Minnesota’s already difficult business climate if a Democratic governor is elected to join forces with a Democratic legislature. We haven’t elected a Democratic governor in Minnesota since 1986. He left office in 1990, a generation ago. If given the opportunity, Democrats will do some serious damage in Minnesota.
Democrats have struck back at Target by serving up the useful tools among the GLBT community. They have orchestrated a campaign against Target, allegedly because of Emmer’s (unspecified) “anti-gay” positions. So far as I can tell, Emmer’s opposition to gay marriage is the hook for the allegation against Emmer. On gay marriage, Emmer has staked out a position that puts him arm in arm with President Obama.
The boycott campaign against Target is a pretext. Its only authentic element is its intent to intimidate Target from straying off the party line.
Randi Reitan is an interesting case in point. She is the star of a video (below) in which she purchases $226 of merchandise at Target, then calls a manager to return the goods because of Target’s support of an “anti-gay” candidate and cuts up her Target charge card. Ms. Retian works herself up into a productive emotional lather professing her love for her family, under assault by Target. “As a mom,” Ms. Reitan asserts, “I had to do this one person protest.” Why is that? “My youngest son is gay, and I love him more than anything I could ever buy at Target.” I guess that makes her special.


The melodramatic Ms. Reitan posted the video at Huffington Post. What a great idea for a story! In short order she and the video were featured both in ABC’s and CBS’s reports on the Target flap.
Mitch Berg gets behind the story in “The Astroturf campaign against Target: Fake but accurate.”

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