Rod Dreher, Radley Balko, and Megan McArdle write on the stupidity of the lefty calls for a boycott of Whole Foods because of CEO John Mackey’s fine op-ed on health-care reform. McArdle’s point is especially practical: “Here’s why boycotts don’t work: the vast majority of customers don’t care.” I think that’s correct, but with a proviso — the organizers of boycotts almost invariably overreach and ask too much of their supporters.

Do the lefties upset about deviationism from The One’s little red book really think people (even they themselves) are going to forego Whole Foods altogether? Did evangelical leaders back in the 90s really think their followers would boycott all Disney products en masse? The problem is that organizers miss the goal of a boycott — in most instances it cannot be a successful economic tool (for the reason McArdle identified); rather it’s a political tool. You want to scare the target by suggesting how strong you are, not threaten things you will simply not be able to deliver. That’s why boycotts need to be very narrowly targeted, so that it’s easy for customers who are sort of concerned, but not really all that concerned, to comply. In other words, you’d call for a summer-long boycott of Whole Foods coffee, for instance, or a boycott of the coming DVD release of Aladdin VI: The Wrath of Jasmine, or something like that. If you target narrowly enough and and you have enough people who are at least a little interested, you might be able to influence sales enough to declare victory. Otherwise, you’re just making a fool of yourself.