What did he say?

A few days ago I wrote about an Op-Ed piece in the Wall Street Journal by John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods. Mackey spoke his mind regarding some ideas for health care reform, some of which were different from the ideas of Obama and many leading Democrats. When I read the article, I had no idea it would enrage so many on the left so much. In fact, some of my friends said they would stop shopping at Whole Foods and there were numerous outbursts of anger, and calls for a boycott of Whole Foods, saying things like, "when you shop at Whole Foods you are bankrolling the conservative Republican effort to kill health care reform." Really? Did he say he was against health care reform? He might not agree with Democrats on the issue, but his editorial certainly advocated reform. Feeling the heat of the article, Mackey defends his editorial on his Whole Foods blog.

Regarding the backlash, I'll quote Megan McArdle, quoting Radley Balko:

Whole Foods is everything leftists talk about when they talk about "corporate responsibility."

And yet lefties want to boycott the company because CEO John Mackey wrote an op-ed that suggests alternatives to single payer health care? It wasn't even a nasty or mean-spirited op-ed. Mackey didn't spread misinformation about death panels, call anyone names, or use ad hominem attacks. He put forth actual ideas and policy proposals, many of them tested and proven during his own experience running a large company. Is this really the state of debate on the left, now? "Agree with us, or we'll crush you?"

These people don't want a dicussion. They don't want to hear ideas. They want you to shut up and do what they say, or they're going to punish you.

Megan goes on to say that the boycott will probably have negligible impact, but the quote sums up my feelings about the matter. Apart from one slightly snarky quote about Socialism at the top, the editorial seemed pretty sensible to me. It's a shame the debate has boiled down to a "you're either with us or against us" rhetoric.

Update: I loved this post, entitled "Latte Liberals are Killing Health Care" including the quotes about "killing my grandma". Wow.