JOHN LEO'S BLOG

Question: If you were trying to organize a boycott and undermine it at the same time, what would your strategy be? I would tie the operation to other controversial causes, thus making sure the number of potential boycotters would shrivel. For example, take last week's anti-Exxon, antiwar March to Redeem the Soul of America in Texas, endorsed by Cindy Sheehan and Howard Zinn. Was this enough to discourage half of America from considering a boycott, or should the wily organizers have made it an atheists-only, save-Mumia, pro-Palestinian, stop-the-carnivores march as well?

Coalition politics tend to deflect organizations from their narrow and specific goals. This happens on the right as well as the left. Some churches seem to have their own foreign policy and clear religious opinions on tax matters. But the left leads the way in deflecting potential supporters by embracing a broad political view. The Sierra Club joined the stop-Alito coalition and has abandoned its traditional concern about overimmigration, thus accommodating the left and turning off conservative greens. The Southern Poverty Law Center, created to focus on hate groups, has come out against an amendment to prohibit gay marriage, demanded the elimination of the Indian mascot at the University of Illinois, and sued to get Judge Roy Moore off the bench in Alabama.

The coalition against Exxon Mobil includes the Human Rights Campaign, a gay lobby protesting the former Mobil's refusal to open domestic partner benefits to homosexuals. Also involved in the boycott are Annie Lennox and Bianca Jagger. What chance do the boycotters have?