The Goya backlash: Trifecta political win for only $10

I have always been puzzled by why political campaigns for relatively mature and accomplished candidates hired 25-year-old inexperienced campaign managers who clearly knew nothing about real issues (Robbie Mook comes to mind) or why charities like Goodwill had to have a top-heavy staff with a $300,000 CEO when they had an unlimited supply of product that cost absolutely nothing to acquire.

I finally figured out the Robbie Mook syndrome when I realized he himself was a perfect example of the type of voter they were trying to influence. They have moved on and deserted us baby boomers in favor of the Millennials. I have yet to figure out the Goodwill puzzle.

Nevertheless, as promised in the headline, you and I can bypass campaign managers and fundraisers, avoid the bureaucracy of some charitable organizations and have subtle message about the power of prayer. Win — win — win all the way.

This was motivated by the boomerang effect against the organized and paid-for trolls who are few in number but certainly noisy and known as the cancel culture. The target this time was Goya Foods whose CEO, Robert Unanue, was at the White House announcing his company’s charitable giving when he uttered the fateful words: “We pray for our leadership, our president.”

Wow, that’s apparently worthy of an organized attempt to boycott their business which would hurt them financially (which also reduces their amount of charitable giving). Just in case you think the boycott could be laughed off as the foolishness that it was, a well-educated prominent political leader chimed in with her support.

29-year old bartender and Boston University honors graduate, New York Congress-creature Ocasio-Cortez supported the boycott and added her two-cents, no doubt relying upon that degree in Economics (really) from BU.

I didn’t actually hear what she said, because I immediately went to change my will to be sure that none of my money ever funded any grandkids’ tuition at Boston University.

The Goya boycott effort reminded me of the time that Dan Cathy, the Chick-fil-A CEO expressed his opinion: “To me a marriage is between a man and a woman,” which released the previous generation of trolls in a very aggressive boycott attempt against Chick-fil-A.

That failed when normal Americans showed their support of Dan Cathy’s words and gave Chick-fil-A its highest sales numbers ever. No word from Barack Obama even though he said exactly the same thing a few years earlier.

The Goya backlash boomerang was immediate. Different people in Virginia, I think, responded, one with a GoFundMe page and another with “Buy Goya, donate it to the food bank” movement. The second boomerang was a direct response to the genius who emptied his/her pantry of all Goya food and put it in the trash and posted a photo of the trash. More evidence that Robbie Mook knows his audience. Both boomerang efforts were successful beyond expectations and provided the inspiration for my suggestion.

The $10 trifecta is simply the same idea but made easy for those of us in Peachtree City. Here’s what you do:

Go to the grocery and buy $10 of Goya Food products above what you will consume yourself. I’m sure other stores carry their products, but for your convenience, Kedron Kroger has Goya on Aisle 3 and the Braelinn Kroger has it on Aisle 16.

Donate that food to the Mid West Food Bank on Parkade Drive, a well-run and efficient charitable organization.

Tell your friends and neighbors what you did.

This accomplishes 3 important things:

You will help Goya Food fly off the shelf and that will be covered by most honest media which by definition excludes NBC, MSNBC and CNN. You will notice canned Goya Food is priced at $1.19. The Kroger managers will quickly see the wisdom of offering those products as 10 for $10.

You will have made a charitable donation which will be appreciated by the recipients.

Politically you can view this as supporting Donald Trump for President, stating the power of prayer, or at least the right to pray freely and express your disdain for these childish trolls who think they can control what we buy.

It is even possible when faced with multiple boomerang events, the people funding these trolls and the cancel culture will see their efforts are counter-productive and stop.

Even if you don’t support Trump, you could still do this. After all, Michelle Obama invited Robert Unanue to speak at the White House; maybe Joe Biden was there too. Ask him if you see him.

Rick Schlosser

Peachtree City, Ga.