Home Depot Worker Receives Death Threats After Wearing 'America Was Never Great' Hat

[Different Drummer]

I applaud her guts...not necessarily her judgment.

http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/home-depot-worker-receives-death-threats-after-wearing-america-was-never-great-hat

[CurtEastPoint]

1. Yet other employees could wear pro Drumpf pins and no problems.

[Different Drummer]

3. It's definitely a double standard, I admit.

[HughBeaumont]

2. Bold indeed.

The founders of Home Depot are outspoken, hyper-Republican bastard billionaires. One of them (Bernie Marcus) is a thorough shit of a human being and Ken Langone once likened the progressive fight against income inequality to the rise of Nazi Germany in 1933. Charming fellow.

[Jackie Wilson Said]

51. Isnt one of them the ones who destroyed Spitzer because Spitzer started to hold

corps accountable?

[branford]

59. Elliot Spitzer destroyed himself.

Well before he broke state federal and state prostitution laws, he had already managed to severely alienate both Democrats and Republicans in the NYS legislature, and his approval rating were in rapid free-fall. It's the reason why virtually no one came to his defense during the scandal and he was forces to quickly resign.

Elliot Spitzer was all about Elliot Spitzer, not holding corporation accountable (he actually lost most of his pertinent cases as AG, particularly on appeal), and blaming anyone else for his misfortune is unjustifiably giving him a pass and ignoring reality.

[Jackie Wilson Said]

60. That is the right wing take on it.

[branford]

62. I'm an attorney and lifelong resident of NYC,

followed Spitzer's career closely, and even was supporter in his early years as NY AG.

Just because he claimed to be liberal or progressive, doesn't make it so, nor does it change the fact that he was all bark and no bite. He talked big about corporations, but actually did very little, usually because he lost most of his cases at trial or appeal. He just wanted the personal publicity. Similarly, it doesn't change the fact that his ego exploded once he was elected governor, angering everyone from the most conservative Republicans to his own (former) liberal allies in the legislature.

In any event, the owners of Home Depot had nothing to do with Spitzer's penchant for expensive prostitutes, and they certainly didn't force him to use the state police to spy on and attempt to discredit political adversaries (See, Troopergate).

Defending Spitzer is ludicrous. He was a corrupt, dishonest and hypocritical ass, and his Democratic Party membership absolves him of nothing. I expect better from our Party (although Cuomo also has been disappointing to most state Democrats, both politically and ethically).

[Jackie Wilson Said]

63. I know more about him than most, and yours is not the liberal take on what happened

I cant risk calling anyone a rightwinger, suffice to say Spitzer is gone because he exposed corruption in big business.

Saying Home Depot guy had nothing to do with it

JEsus, I wont even point out the movie, I am sure you will have your reasons why it is all bullshit too..

This time you are talking to someone who works in an industry directly affected by his heroic actions.

[branford]

65. Are you seriously claiming that Spitzer DIDN'T

illegally employ prostitutes across state lines or use state police resources to spy on political adversaries?

Did anyone force him to engage in this corruption and hypocrisy? Was Spitzer framed by the Home Depot owners?

Is it not true that at the time of his scandals, he was at virtual war with the entire NYS Legislature, including liberal Democrats, and virtually no one came to his defense?

Spitzer should be cooling his heels in a jail cell, not lauded by anyone, particularly Democrats. He is a living lesson on the risks of electing egomaniacs and narcissists to high public office.

[Jackie Wilson Said]

66. This is a liberal message board. You are making the right wing argument about him

You should do that on a right wing board.

Cant imagine what you would say about Siegelman.

[branford]

69. Spitzer is a corrupt, dishonest and hypocritical ass.

This is not in dispute, and quite frankly, I haven't heard anyone in Democratic circles even passively attempt to defend Spitzer in many, many years.

He's actually openly admitted to his failings and illegalities, and has been quite rightly banished from public life. He's very lucky he's not in prison. The fact that conservatives may benefit when certain Democrats fall is not a defense of those Democrats. "Our" criminal politicians are still criminals. We can do better.

If demanding that elected officials, Democrats or otherwise, obey universally accepted laws and standards of behavior is a "right wing" argument, consider me guilty as charged.

[Blue_Tires]

4. Brilliant...

The girl's got stones, I'll give her that...

[dembotoz]

5. political stuff from either side does not belong in a place of business

unless the management wants to make a statement and then i can make my statement by going elsewhere.

i can always find somebody to take my cash.....

[frankieallen]

6. agreed, she is there to work and represent the company. Not to piss off

half the people that walk through the door. She's lucky she still has a job.

[Mendocino]

21. So for her coworkers

who wear Pro-trump clothing/buttons/badges, that is OK?

[Egnever]

22. "political stuff from either side does not belong in a place of business"

That was pretty clear no?

[Heeeeers Johnny]

23. Where is the proof, evidence other than her saying so?

And if true, I suspect the dress code policy will be changed to prohibit any clothing, items that is political or
controversial in nature.

[Mendocino]

24. Where is the proof

when you "worked" there that it wasn't the case? See how that works.

[FLPanhandle]

29. Agreed.

She was stupid.

Wear the cap all around town all she wants, but when not at work.

They would have every right to fire her.

[maxsolomon]

7. I question Trump's phrase as well

it offends me. It implies that America isn't Great, as well. What is it saying? America WAS Great, and now it's not?

Fuck You, Drumpf. America is and always has been Great. We invented Jazz and Rock and Roll, for God's sake.

Of course, there's a lot of America that looks like shit thanks to greed and ignorance. Like the inside of any Trump Property.

[Different Drummer]

11. Well said!

[branford]

13. Are you therefore offended by the Home Depot worker's hat?

It read "America Was Never Great."

As a practical matter, I certainly don't find such slogans particularly helpful for Democrats during an election season. This woman is also very lucky she wasn't fired.

If she wants to help our Party or Bernie, she needs to get an "America Is Great" hat, something I believe would easily pass the uniform requirements of Home Depot.

[LeftyMom]

26. America isn't great for women of color and never has been.

That's the whole fucking point.

[branford]

28. You're welcome to use the "American Was Never Great" slogan

during the election. Luckily, I expect the DNC and Hillary (or even Bernie) will not be so foolish.

It's the anti-American implications of these types of displays that routinely hurt Democrats, visibly support the worst right-wing stereotypes of our Party, and encourage buffoons like Trump.

[LeftyMom]

31. DUers telling marginalized people to shut up until after the election.

That's new.

If your idea of "hurting democrats" doesn't include telling the most reliable dem constituency there is to shut up I don't fucking know what to tell you.

[branford]

33. Who's telling you to shut up?

In fact, I explicitly stated you are obviously free to use the "America Was Never Great" slogan as much as you like.

However, when running for elected officer in America, it's hardly outlandish to suggest that disparaging America and gratuitously insulting wide swaths of your fellow citizenry might not be the best electoral strategy, no less on a national level. If the most basic electoral common sense eludes you or you somehow view this simple reality as "shutting you up," well, I don't fucking know what to tell you.

Whether you like it or not, liberal policies, particularly those that support marginalized groups you claim to speak for and support, will not be implemented and supported if Democrats lose elections, to say nothing of the presidency.

An "America Was Never Great" public attitude or campaign is an express ticket to President Trump.

[LeftyMom]

34. You seem to be under the impression that I'm the woman in the hat?

You also seem to be under the impression that she's running for elective office? Or you're conflating her with somebody who is? I can't tell, you seem to be operating under the impression that everybody you disagree with: the lady in the hat, people on DU, Dem candidates you don't like and Republicans are either interchangable or actively in cahoots. This is conspiratorial nonsense of the highest order.

You're telling her that her speech is inconvenient to causes you care about. The clear implication is that she needs to stop expressing herself.

[branford]

35. She claims to support Bernie Sanders and Democratic Party,

I simply noted that if Bernie or our Party actually adopted an "America Was Never Great" slogan or attitude, it would be electoral suicide. Would that be good for anyone?

You accused me and others of effectively telling marginalized people to shut-up by stating this obvious, undeniable reality.

That's not only incorrect and insulting, but patently ludicrous. It's a matter of simple discretion and common sense in an heated election season. It's the reason why the hat was a story at all.

I would also note that the Home Depot worker is very lucky she still has a job. She has no First Amendment protection for such speech or expression in the workplace, and Home Depot would have been quite justified to terminate her for gratuitously bringing politics into the workplace and potentially alienating customers, no less in her store in very Republican Staten Island.

[TipTok]

36. Bit dramatic...

High standards of living and health and more opportunity than virtually anywhere in the world...

It just isn't the hell hole you imply...

[LeftyMom]

37. The maternal death rate for black American women is equal to that of Turkmenistan

Black women die in childbirth at three times the rate of white women with the exact same pregnancy complications.

[TipTok]

38. So it's all just shit then?

Throwing out the baby with the bath water a bit...

Also, a 'so what' or even a 'why' would help move your train of thought out of the station.

Assuming that is true, the response would be something along the lines of 'and........?'

[LeftyMom]

40. This country is terrible to black women. It always has been.

So no, it's not great.

[TipTok]

44. It's tough to get anything done with a terrible attitude...

Setting yourself up for failure...

[romanic]

45. I would just drop the arguement.

Some just love to wallow and speak for others.

[TipTok]

46. I suppose...

I think folks like that do more to hold PoC back than anyone wearing a pointy hood.

Just perpetuates the myth that an entire group is doomed to failure and its all someone else's fault.

[LanternWaste]

55. No doubt, you have support for that allegation?

"I think folks like that do more to hold PoC back than anyone wearing a pointy hood..."

No doubt, you have support for that allegation? Or was it merely another self-validating allegation meaning little, imparting less and supporting nothing, yet allowing your consistent bias to thrive? My guess is it's the second, but a justification will soon be made to pretend otherwise... it's adorable.

[TipTok]

57. It's an opinion based on observation, experience and common sense...

Feel free to take it as you please.

Based on your history though, I suspect you would be better off not to be so casually dismissive of things that don't immediately fit within your narrow views.

[XemaSab]

71. Harriet Tubman should have just looked on the bright side

and not had such a shitty attitude.

What was that woman's problem, anyways?

[TipTok]

72. Well that was rather dismissive...

I think she would side with me and not just perpetuate the myth that PoC are doomed from the get go.

I prefer to treat everyone as my equal until proven otherwise...

Maybe you have a different method...

[LanternWaste]

54. I don't think wearing a ball-cap is the equivalent of throwing a baby out-

I don't think wearing a ball-cap is the equivalent of throwing a baby out-- unless of course, a star-spangled bias compels an irrational mind to do so, regardless of the irrelevance of your bathing habits.

[TipTok]

58. Wow...

That was... unique...

[maxsolomon]

49. well, we were great at oppressing minorities.

I'm not offended, no. she's not running to be president. the president's job is to blow smoke up our ass - remember what happened when Carter didn't?

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

17. Conservatives/Rethugs only think it's great when they are in charge.

They are fucking hypocrites.

[tralala]

8. Sounds like some people haven't heard

of a little thing called Freedom of Speech!

[Throd]

9. She also might experience the freedom of unemployment.

[tralala]

10. Sounds like a lot of people are intent on proving her hat right

[Throd]

14. Free speech comes with consequences.

She can wear that hat on her own time all she wants.

[Miles Archer]

15. "Employment" is a contract between an employer and an employee

"Free speech" is neither implied nor granted.

Do something to piss off customers and they don't see someone expressing their right to free speech by wearing it on a hat.

They get pissed off at Home Depot.

How that makes America "never great" adds up to dots you were able to connect, but I can't.

[ISUGRADIA]

18. Sigh

I suggest you read the First Amendment, and read it closely

[Heeeeers Johnny]

25. Apparently you fail to grasp or understand the concept of "Freedom of Speech"...

as it applies to private enterprises.

Don't believe me?

Try testing it out on your workplaces bulletin board or email system criticizing the higher ups, company policy
or political activism/statement in general.

The same "Freedom of Speech" rules/guidelines apply here as well as any other web forums.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

12. A public-facing worker should know better.

But I'll tell anyone at Home Depot: Metric threaded bolts are for leftists! Real men use Merrican threads!

[runaway hero]

16. She's right

Especially if you are black, america was never great.

[LiberalElite]

19. Yes. I'm guessing that's her point eom

[moonbabygo]

20. then find your great country nt

[runaway hero]

27. this is total white privilege speaking

[LeftyMom]

32. Ah yes, because 'love it or leave it' is an argument with a proud progressive legacy

[ck4829]

43. And will these "make America great again" people give up all the horrible things of the present?

If the present is so horrible and they want to go back and live in the past, then they should free themselves of the terrible things we currently have in this day and age; modern communications, medicine, transportation, etc.

Surely they don't just mean "No Muslims, no gays, and no uppity minorities", right? Right?

[Softail1]

30. not a very smart thing to do at work

Do it on your off hours, that's fine, and is your right to do...at work? no, dumb..really dumb,

[fleabiscuit]

39. Reaction to her really points to how freaking squirrelly we are in this country.

Just take an aspirin and consider the hat her religious head covering if it bites you in the butt.

[Jitter65]

41. Wonder what would happen if a Trump supporter wore a hat saying "America is not great now." nt

[ck4829]

42. They praise Trump for not being 'politically correct' // Can't stand an opinion they don't like

"Make America Great Again", the 2010's are actually pretty good. Does anyone really want to go back to the decade where...

We had a world war
We had a great depression
We had another world war
We hid under our desks and were afraid of the communists... EVERYWHERE
Birmingham was also known as Bombingham because of racists

[MrScorpio]

47. America needs to stop worshipping itself

Take off the rose colored glasses and take a real accounting of its own past and present.

The first thing we should do is to disregard the exploiters when they're regaling us about how great we supposedly are.

It's pure self delusion and an impediment to self-improvement.

[HughBeaumont]

48. I noticed that the people who most believe America needs to go hyper right wing to be "great" . . .

. . . are the ones that downplay or negate our most egregious sins frequently and with victim-blaming fury, mostly because they want to keep committing them.

[maxsolomon]

50. In many ways, Americans are children when it comes to their history

Either/Or arguments works very well on them. Nuanced ones don't. They don't really want to know the full tally of their complicity in the horrors that built this country. They don't want to believe that the soldiers in Vietnam or Iraq died for nothing - that their lives were wasted.

A presidential campaign is not when the accounting you want is going to happen. There are too many who are simply incapable of self-reflection and evolution who are going to take offense.

I still believe America has done great things, has great natural beauty, and is filled with great people. Of course, that applies to nearly every other nation on the planet as well. Just don't tell that to white people if you want to get elected.

[MrScorpio]

52. I've had some white people tell me that things are great in America...

But what they really meant is that they think that all things are greater here than anywhere else...

Clearly, these are the people who have never traveled abroad.

[maxsolomon]

56. And people who would never watch that Michael Moore movie either

It wouldn't hurt these people to actually meet some minorities either.

[branford]

61. "America Was Never Great" is most definitely not a "nuanced" argument.

People from across the political spectrum and of all races and ethnicities can acknowledge that America is far from perfect, both historically and today (as can be said for all countries, as you acknowledge), yet still simultaneously have great pride in our culture and accomplishments?

Trump's "Make America Great Again" is populist hogwash, but its opposite, "America Was Never Great," is no better.

Do you really find it surprising that Americans might not want someone as their president who doesn't believe the country and people they intend to lead are indeed "great?" Similarly, do you believe this electoral reality only exists in the USA, or also applies to countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and elsewhere without white majorities?

[maxsolomon]

64. I think that saying one's country isn't great is a recipe for losing elections as well

no matter the country. Nativism is a common human trait, one of the reasons that Fascism is a never ending threat.

[branford]

68. There's a wide gulf between pride in one's nation and culture and actual fascism.

Tribalism is also inherent in humanity. Countries exist, borders have meaning, cultures are different. Tribalism is not necessarily nativism, and cultural relativism and related beliefs are dangerous (See, migrant crisis in Europe) and do not lead to fascism unless the democratic will of the people are ignores.

In fact, the fascism allegation is used so freely and loosely in common discourse as to almost render the term meaningless.

I would also ironically note that our generally far more liberal, democratic political cousins in Europe are the ones who actually elect tried and true fascists and neo-Nazis to national and European parliaments. Despite the hyperbole of some in our country, Americans really have little tolerance for truly far left or right-wing politicians. Communists and hardcore socialists and fascists are not electable to high office in the USA, unlike many other parts of the Western world.

Whenever the specter of fascism is brought up, I always recall the classic Tom Wolf quote, "the dark night of fascism is always descending in the United States and yet lands only in Europe."

[CompanyFirstSergeant]

53. Most of their treated 2 by 4's

Still have the tree bark on them.

Go to a real lumber yard.

Home Depot sucks.

[Prism]

67. At a Home Depot? That's ballsy

I'm a little surprised they'd let employees display any political message.

Still, reading her comments in the article, she has a lot of grace and poise at 22. There were a lot of different ways she could have reacted, and she chose reasoned and classy. Good for her.

Of course, being a Home Depot, I'm surprised Trump supporters weren't preoccupied with harassing all the Latino day laborers outside.