The state chapter of the NAACP and other left-leaning groups were announcing their campaign targeting Variety Wholesalers on Monday when Art Pope, chief executive of Variety Wholesalers, came out of the state budget office to tell reporters his side of the debate. This resulted in a confrontation between Pope and NAACP President Rev. William Barber.
With a slogan such as “Making Value Affordable,” Variety Wholesalers’ stores seem to target people with less than disposable incomes. Yet Pope has used his money to advocate for legislation that will hurt these very people.
Barber took issue with the fact that Pope has been supporting “extreme and regressive public policy” that hinders the very people who patron Pope’s stores, which include Roses, Maxway and others.
“There is a clear record of his intentional utilization of his money to manipulate the system and the political process in North Carolina in ways that can clearly be seen are counter to the principle of the good of the whole and counter to the principle of justice and fairness and equality for all,” Barber said before Pope was present.
Pope made the argument that he wouldn’t want conservatives to “start protesting Democratic donors and their businesses the way the far left is trying to deter me from exercising my rights and trying to hurt our customers and hurt our employees.”
But Pope’s situation is different. There is nothing inherently wrong with donating money. However unfortunate it is, money and free speech are intertwined, and people have the right to spend their money and voice their opinions as they please. But Pope is using his money in a manner that will hurt the people who contribute to his wealth by shopping at Variety Wholesalers’ stores.
Pope later said, “We give back to the community. We help alleviate the symptoms of poverty through traditional humanitarian help. We’re one of the largest charitable givers in the Research Triangle.”
But Pope, known as the King of the Right, has invested millions of dollars into several conservative think tanks, including Americans for Prosperity, the John Locke Foundation and the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy. Some of the policies these organizations endorse include cuts to unemployment benefits and implementing a law that would require voters to present photo identification at the polls.
By advocating for voter ID laws, Pope is making it more difficult for people to vote. But for what benefit? State Board of Elections data show that of the 6,947,317 votes cast in the two primary elections and the general election in 2012, there were only 121 cases of alleged voter fraud referred to the district attorneys’ offices. That means cases of voter fraud occurred in less than 0.002 percent of votes.
The John W. Civitas Pope Institute, which was founded by and is mostly funded by Art Pope, was pulled into a lawsuit regarding House Bill 589, the Voter Identification and Verification Act, according to the Institute for Southern Studies.
Additionally, Pope repeated to Barber his claim that the federal government was responsible for “not grandfathering” North Carolina’s cuts.
“In other words, it’s Pope’s (and apparently McCrory’s) contention that it’s the federal government’s fault that North Carolina unemployed workers got cut off because it (the federal government) refused to change or waive a longstanding law of which it had repeatedly warned North Carolina leaders they would run afoul,” said Rob Schofield for The Progressive Pulse.
Pope surely doesn’t need the money he makes from Variety Wholesalers to pay his bills, but the saying still applies: Pope is biting the hand that feeds him.
