As important as expressing your feelings to elected officials can be, businesses can be even more important. They hate losing money.
They also need to know why they are losing money.
I believe that the avid Trumpers are not the majority. Voter suppression and the determination of progressives to be spiteful played a role in the election results. He has too many fans but I still don't think they actually outnumber us.
They are obnoxiously loud, and could easily make a majority of the noise, giving businesses a distorted view.
We need to speak up to.
I found some good advice at Americans of Conscience:
https://americansofconscience.com/how-to-boycott/
Political organizations say that phone contact is the most noticed with elected officials; that is not necessarily the case for companies. It might work with a smaller company, but for a large corporation the most effective thing may be a letter to the corporate office.
Tell them you will not be patronizing them anymore and tell them why.
See, I stopped buying from Amazon after Bezos prevented The Washington Post from endorsing Harris. What I haven't done is announce it.
The page gives information on what kind of information to include, like where you will be shopping instead, and how much you tend to spend. That would be to make it hurt more.
The other thing they recommend is notes of gratitude if there is a change made. I agree with that, but also, if there are companies you appreciate, tell them now.
I am writing breakup letters to Amazon and Google, but also a note of thanks to Costco.
How do you decide?
There are a few things to look at. I will never frequent Chik-fil-A or Hobby Lobby, but since I haven't been, that's not really a threat. I could lie, but dishonesty is a big part of how we got into this mess.
I have never been a big Target shopper, but one of my sisters has loved them, and she has stopped going.
She should write to them.
(Also Target is now dealing with a shareholder lawsuit and that is beautiful: https://www.forbes.com/sites/pamdanziger/2025/02/04/target-hit-with-shareholder-lawsuit-claiming-investors-were-defrauded-about-dei-risks/)
If you have shares or are a VIP customer of some kind, or if you just spend a lot, that might be a company that will pay more attention to you.
All of my previously mentioned companies are ones I was aware of anyway. To see if I was missing anything, subjects I have searched under include "Trump supporters", "donors to inauguration", and "abandoning DEI". That gives us...
https://www.newsweek.com/american-businesses-supporting-donating-donald-trump-list-2027957
I am not giving up everyone in the results.
To be fair, I have always known Wal-Mart is evil, but was directed there for cheap insulin when I had no health coverage, and I have a great pharmacist there. I am currently insured through Medicaid, so I don't know how long I will have insurance. Maybe it's just fear, but I am sticking with them.
I have remained on Twitter and Facebook, even though I despise their owners.
Musk has said protesting users will be banned, so I could end up gone anyway. For now, there are people I stay for.
You can express disappointment even without declaring a boycott.
There are some that are mixed. I think the NFL was cowardly to remove "End Racism" from the end zones when the racist-in-chief was going to be there, but they have expressed commitment to DEI.
You could write a letter expressing what you support.
There will be posts coming up that will be more about stepping back from capitalism, so some of these may matter less anyway.
For now, you have a voice and you can use it.
Potential action item: Write to a company you use about their policies.
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