Give Us Liberty: COSTCO POSTSCRIPT...

Costco Caves on Dinesh D’Souza Book

So as the country is flooded with illegal immigrants, the IRS loses e-mails, the VA bungles health care for America’s heroes, and ISIS sets up a caliphate—into this already explosive mix comes a seemingly very small event.

Costco decided it would remove Obama critic Dinesh D’Souza’s book America from its shelves. Big mistake.

The backlash has been enormous, as any person with their wits about them—which apparently did not include the leadership of Costco—would know. It was quickly noted that Jim Sinegal, the co-founder, director, and former CEO of Costco is a major Obama ally (as discussed back in 2012 here at Forbes); so much of an ally that he was given a speaking slot at the last Democratic National Convention, with the president himself showing up at a Costco to give a speech.

But Costco isn’t about Mr. Sinegal’s political views. It is, supposedly, about serving its customers. And lo and behold, it seems a lot of customers have been listening to or reading conservative media accounts of what was happening to D’Souza’s book. Here, to pick just one notable reaction, was Rush Limbaugh, who has taken considerable air time to discuss the Costco issue at length, relating it to the larger world of liberalism. A woman named Laura, a Costco customer, called into Rush’s show, furious about Costco’s treatment of the D’Souza book. For good measure she added that she couldn’t find Rush’s bestselling children’s books there either.

Stop and think about that. In this twenty-first century, when everyone is wired (or wirelessed) into everyone else, the idea that Costco customers like Laura wouldn’t understand what was happening to the D’Souza book is stunningly bad business management for a company which, as part of its express function, sells books. Here's Rush's reply to Laura (in part):

This guy, here's the thing about this, Laura. This guy, this Costco Democrat loyalist has done more to spread the word and inform people that this book even exists than the best PR campaign paid for by money could do. This guy has done more to sell the book than he could have if he just shut up and left it alone in the stores. He has created more attention for this book than otherwise would have happened. So use it and go buy it, like you did, at Amazon. Go see the movie and then learn and admit who these people actually are. They tell you every day. ...

Now, Costco. Costco has responded at least initially to all of the disgust they are hearing from people, having pulled Dinesh D'Souza's book America, and they're saying at Costco (paraphrased), "There's nothing political about this. We pulled it because it's not selling, and we only sell best-sellers here. We only put out books that are on the New York Times list. We don't stock a bunch of garbage here that doesn't sell."

Those are my words that I'm putting in their mouths, but that's basically their excuse, that the book isn't selling. Now, the book is gonna open on the July 13th New York Times list. It's gonna be on the list. It would satisfy the Costco requirement as stated by one of their executives today. They also, it seems, didn't know at the time they agreed to stock the book that there was a movie that supports and is in conjunction with the book.

Apparently it's the fact that there's a movie attached to this that really set them off at Costco. Now, if they were just interested in selling product, they would say, "Wow, a movie to support the book? Wow, this thing could be a big seller!" But it is political. And, for crying out loud, this guy, Sinegal (who's one of the co-founders of Costco), again, is a multi-hundred thousand-dollar donor to the Democrats. He's an Obama sycophant.

But in the process, what they've done is succeeded in calling much more attention to D'Souza's book and they're probably going to generate a lot more sales for D'Souza's book.

There’s more, much more, and you can read the full transcript at the link above.

Last night it was reported that Costco had caved and would in fact carry the D’Souza book. When I heard this, a thought occurred to me. It is said that in the immediate aftermath of Pearl Harbor, Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto warily remarked of America: "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”

This dust-up over Costco pulling Dinesh D’Souza’s book may seem like a small thing. Yet added to everything else—as noted above, the illegal immigrant flood, the IRS, the VA, ISIS, and all the rest—it seems that the “sleeping giant” that is the average, everyday American is at last awake from the drugged sleep that has been Obama's determination to “transform America.”

America is transformed all right—and Americans are mad as hell about it. And as one sees in all those news clips of people angrily halting busloads of illegals out there in a small California town—just as with unleashing their wrath on Costco—they aren’t going to sit around and take it anymore.

Look out.