Unless you’ve been living under a rock you’ve likely heard of the far left’s movement to boycott Home Depot.

The hashtag #BoycottHomeDepot trended at the top of Twitter for the better half of several days. The boycott was started when news broke that Home Depot’s co-founder Bernie Marcus promised to give a part of his fortune to President Trump’s reelection campaign amongst many other causes. The left is now attacking Marcus and the company he helped found while ignoring the fact that they are a part of one of many American success stories.

The story of Home Depot goes back to 1978 when co-founders Bernie Marcus and Arthur Brooke were fired from their jobs as President and Vice President at the wildly successful Handy Dan Home Improvement Centers. By 1979, the two had opened their first two stores in Atlanta. Just two years after that, in 1981, Home Depot went public and raised over 4 million. By focusing on the customer and implementing the “Customer Bill of Rights” the company flourished. The company was able to vastly grow after a decade in business opened its 100th store in 1989.

The success wasn’t limited to the United States. In 1994, Home Depot acquired Aikenhead in Canada and began operations in their second country. To stay relevant in a changing economy, Home Depot began an e-commerce store in 2000 and, in 2002, started the The Home Depot Foundation, a volunteer based charity that aids veterans. In the same year, Home Depot acquired Del Norte in Mexico and began operations in its third county. By 2005, just 27 years after having started Home Depot, they opened their 2000th store. After Hurricane Katrina, Home Depot created a subsection of the Home Depot Foundation for hurricane relief which has donated over 14 million as of 2014. In 2014, Home Depot began expanding into the online space by building fulfillment centers across the country.

This wild success has made co-founder Bernie Marcus incredibly wealthy, with a net worth of 5.9 billion. Though Marcus has stated that he plans to donate 90% of it. Having already given over 2 billion to over 300 causes, it’s the 7 million to the Trump Campaign the left is focused on.

In 2010, the Supreme Court ruled on Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission, ruling that corporations have the right to donate money to local and national elections. Since then, the left has been desperate to overturn this ruling—never mind the fact that they are happy to take money from unions.

Since the left can’t get the decision overturned legislatively, all they can do is attempt to intimidate companies. The left’s favorite weapon to do this is these faux boycotts. The only way to combat this is to support the companies the left targets and it looks as if we’re on the right track as the Home Depot stock has only gone up since the start of the boycott.

Related

Emilio Avelar Emilio Avelar is a 20-year-old college student pursuing a BAS in Aeronautical Sciences. He hopes to help spread conservatism on campus to people in his age demographic.

The views expressed in this article are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Lone Conservative staff.