Home Depot Founder: Non-GOP Donors 'Should Be Shot'

Bernie Marcus, one of the founders of Home Depot, has the blogosphere all atwitter over remarks he made on a conference call Monday. From Tom Frank of The Wall Street Journal:

"If a retailer has not gotten involved with this, if he has not spent money on this election, if he has not sent money to Norm Coleman and these other guys," Mr. Marcus said, apparently referring to Republican senators facing tough re-election fights, then those retailers "should be shot; should be thrown out of their goddamn jobs."

Bloggers everywhere are focusing on this"money quote," with snarky headlines about sanctioning murder. To be sure, it's a grabber, and it nicely illustrates the hostility of corporations towards workers.

The problem with this approach is that it makes the story about the "Gotcha!" quote, rather than the left's failure in messaging. The subject of that call was card check legislation, which makes it easier for workers to organize into unions. For me, the real money quote from Marcus is this:

"This is the demise of a civilization," moaned Bernie Marcus during an Oct. 17 conference call about card check. "This is how a civilization disappears. I'm sitting here as an elder statesman, and I'm watching this happen, and I don't believe it."

When a guy like Marcus is trying this hard to scare you, you must be doing something right. Private-sector union membership peaked in the 70's at around 35%, and wallows below 10% today. Civilization seems to have a decent cushion there.

Republicans have pulled off a neat trick over the past 30 years or so, convincing far too many Americans that huge corporations are victims of oppressive workers and consumers. They hide their greed in plain sight, framing it as an issue of liberty. Conversely, Democrats have done an exceedingly poor job of pushing back against this.

Frank is right when he observes that the people said, clearly, in this election that they want to see more fairness in our economy. But it took far too long, and at 52%-46%, was far too close. Democrats have to figure out a way to get out the message that it is not un-American to stand up for basic fairness, and that in a free market, workers have the same right to leverage that companies do.

Tommy Christopher and Caleb Howe co-host "Unusable Signal",on BlogTalkRadio, Tues through Thurs at 10pm, and Fri, and Sat at 11pm. (Eastern) Click here for the Unusable Signal homepage.