Quite extraordinary

As it happens, I do shop from time to time in Whole Foods in Kensington. When I was in New York I shopped there more often, not least because it was a cheaper option for a take-away lunch than it is in Britain. But it has many things that one cannot get anywhere else and a reasonable selection of others.

I have no problems with buying organic food (and not all of it is at Whole Foods) because I reckon that anyone who is prepared to pay the premium should have the choice to do so. The idea of opposing the production and purchase of organic food on ideological grounds is, in my opinion, laughable. When it comes to dairy produce and eggs, organic tastes much better, anyway. But then, food is never discussed in Britain on the basis of taste.

Whole Foods is, however, quite expensive, which will make it a little difficult for me to support it as all right-thinking people should because it is being boycotted by all those who are hysterical about Obamacare. Michelle Malkin's account is not exactly unbiased but reasonably accurate.

Here is John Mackey's article in the Wall Street Journal that has caused the fracas. In it he argues against the various proposals emanating or not emanating from the Democrats and the thumping propaganda from the White House, suggesting various free-market solutions to the problem of health care in the United States.

Anyone would think he had proposed to boil the President in oil or to nuke Congress. The Obamacare supporters are screaming for a boycott (though this is being countered by many people who are calling for support) and the United Food and Commercial Workers' Union is leafleting some Whole Foods stores with seriously inaccurate information.

What intrigued me particularly on the leaflet that Michelle reproduces on her blog is the sentence: "Do you really want your shopping dollars going to executives who are undermining President Obama?". Then there is the inevitable call for John Mackey to go.

This is a mixture of sheer idiocy and a Stalinist outlook on life. No company gets rid of a CEO because he has written a reasonable and relevant article or because some picketers demand it.

Secondly, those shopping dollars do not go to the CEO but the company, which, in the case of Whole Food, includes all the employees, who have various benefits as well as shareholders, who do reasonably well out of it, and are ploughed back into a very successful business.

Thirdly, and most importantly, it is a little disturbing to hear the argument in the United States of all countries, that there is something shocking and outrageous in a businessman criticizing the President, all criticism being an attempt to "undermine" the POTUS.

There is another aspect to this, noted by a few people already. The health care fiasco is described as Obama's very own; the failure of what is described as a "reform" would be according to many, the destruction of his presidency; the people who oppose it - an ever larger number - are undermining the President. This means that whichever way matters pan out; if some health care bill is pushed through in the teeth of growing opposition or if it fails, President Obama will be the fall guy. The Congress Democrats will distance themselves from the whole mess. Can he not see this?

UPDATE: Michelle Malkin has an entertaining post about the union fat-cats who are directing the attacks on Whole Foods.