Trump claims Goya boycott has backfired
President Trump said the attempted boycott of Goya foods has backfired as the company’s CEO came under fire for his visit to the White House and kind words about the President.
Editor's note: This column first appeared in the Washington Times.
True to form, when someone announced a generous and important action that will help untold numbers of Americans, Democrats and the left launched into cancel mode. Why? Because when Robert Unanue, the CEO of Goya Foods, announced a massive donation of their products to food banks across the country, he also praised President Trump.
During his remarks, he noted that “Trump was ‘a builder,’ like his own illustrious grandfather, and called for Americans to pray for their president,” the Media Research Center reported.
Fortunately, for most Americans, such decent and generous remarks are considered normal and worth praising, yet Democrats were sent over (again) their Trump-hating cliff leading to a call for a boycott of this largest Hispanic-owned food company in the United States, with more than 4,000 employees worldwide.
Make no mistake, this cancel-culture obscenity, the seeking to destroy people and businesses that do not conform, is the virtual version of the riots that played out in Democratic-run cities with real-life fire bombing of buildings and the physical destruction of businesses and lives. It may be less visually dramatic, but it is still the mob, and they still seek to destroy and punish anyone who dares to get in their political way.
Mr. Unanue was attacked on social media and in newspapers. The conventional wisdom was, after having his company disemboweled, he would lift himself briefly off the ground, beg for forgiveness and then slink away into cancelled obscurity.
But as a man of principle, he decided to not bend to the mob. In several interviews, he has refused to apologize and instead has condemned this culture of destruction.
“You know, this call for a boycott. There’s so many people for, you know, against the boycott and for our company. So it’s just a reflection, I believe, of the division that exists today in our country,” Mr. Unanue told Fox Business’ Varney & Co. “I don’t know who I attribute this quote to, but we’ve lived by the philosophy of ‘there are those who are born to love and to build and others to hate and destroy.’ And unfortunately, this great divide is killing our nation.”
As the left was engaging in virtual arson, conservatives and other well-meaning people countered this threat against Goya with a call to support the company and buy their products.
The “buy-cott” was initiated by radio host Mike Opelka by tweeting “My brother came up with a terrific idea and I am encouraging all to join me in purchasing $10 worth of Goya Foods products and donating them to your local food bank. Let’s push a BUY-cott, not a boycott. Let’s show … people what compassion can do.” He noted in an interview he’s “trying to fight anger with love.”
In another case, a GoFundMe campaign was launched which, as of this writing, has raised $127,000 for the purchase of Goya Foods for food pantries.
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This typical cancel-culture effort to destroy a person and a company for not conforming to the Democratic worldview is nothing new. Bullying, abuse, violence and rioting are now the upfront Democratic election strategies for 2020. I know, it doesn’t make sense, but it is all the left has ever had — they feed on envy, jealousy and hate, and condition their base to view everything, especially their own lives, through a lens of victimhood and enemies.
This attack on Goya especially exposes the core of the fraud of identity politics. For generations now, liberals and the left have been conditioning Americans to see each other through the lens of tribalism. It is, after all, easier to control people when they believe they’re under constant threat by an unknown and unknowable enemy who happens to live right next door.
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Americans have been sold the lie that a sliver of your identity is what matters, and that the Democratic machine will represent and protect you. Ask the people of Minneapolis, Chicago, New York, Seattle, Portland and Baltimore how that’s working out for them.
Identity politics is sold as philosophy of personal elevation and power, but in reality it’s about control, punishment and destruction. Ultimately, it is the brainwashing and destruction that enforces a code of complete conformity lest you are expelled and cancelled.
This is the real agenda of the left — control people with threat so questions, debate, independent thought and genuine inquiry into facts are too dangerous to even consider. It is the only way violent fascists are able to take, and keep, control of Americans cities without fear of confrontation.
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How else can you explain urban areas run by Democratic mayors in the United States before our very eyes turning into dystopian hellscapes? How else can you explain the demonstrations by Black Lives Matter, but their silence about the surge in murders of Black people (including children) every weekend in New York and Chicago? How else is it that Mr. Unanue, head of the largest Hispanic-owned company in America, founded by his immigrant grandfather, would be at the top of the liberal list for virtual execution?
It is explained by the fact that it is all about control by people who have contempt for the very communities they claim to care about. It is about the political control brought by chaos and fear. And it is the only thing the Democrats and their allied groups know how to do.