L.L. Bean Clarifies Its Stance on Trump in a New Statement

From Esquire

It wasn't that long ago that the primary reason for making a purchase was whether or not you liked the product. Personal ethics played a role, of course-you find out that a company doesn't live up to certain labor or environmental standards somewhere along the supply chain and you move on. For a long time, this was the norm. But in 2017, whatever was once considered normal has gone flying out the window.

Earlier this week, news broke that social movement #GrabYourWallet had added Maine-based L.L. Bean to its list of companies to consider boycotting due to one of its board members-Linda Bean, the granddaughter of founder Leon Leonwood and one of 50-plus family members who is part owner-supporting a Trump-friendly PAC during the election.

L.L. Bean board chairman Shawn Gorman quickly tried to quash any blowback by posting an open letter on Facebook asserting that one person's political opinion did not speak for the whole company.

Essentially, he wanted customers to know that L.L. Bean as an entity was apolitical. President-elect Trump, however, did not want that.

Today, a giant can of partisan fuel was poured onto this simmering dumpster fire courtesy of the ratings machine DJT. Taking to his usual platform for pulpit bullying and dissemination of non-facts, Trump tweeted out a message of solidarity with both Linda Bean and L.L. Bean.

When reached for comment about the ongoing story, L.L. Bean senior public affairs manager Carolyn Beem told Esquire.com:

So despite the fact that the company as a whole has repeatedly voiced no interest in becoming a political pawn of the incoming Trump administration, Trump has made it just that. And this, along with the growing list of stories just like it, is one of the very real dangers of Donald Trump.

Since Trump is such a fan of gross hyperbole, how about this one: He's the single most divisive figure in American history, and this unfolding story about L.L. Bean proves it. Now, unlike Trump, I will go ahead and elaborate on such a hyperbolic statement, and why it makes him so dangerous.

Political division has always existed in American politics. John Adams, one of our most important founding fathers, was pilloried-quite ruthlessly, I might add-by Democratic-Republicans due of his perceived alignment with the Federalist party. Sadly for him, he was also excoriated by the Federalists (and most vociferously by Alexander Hamilton) for not being Federalist enough.

Which, fair enough; politics is politics. And of course, political division has a long history of trickling down-into art, entertainment, business, media, and pretty much everything else. But it was just a trickle. A political swipe here, a jab there. With Trump, it is no longer a trickle. He has carved a massive hole into the dam of political opinion to create a flood, to the point that everything is now saturated. Case in point: We are drawing lines over a pair of rubber boots. Made by a company who, again, as an entity, has no political affiliation.

Macy's, Amazon, L.L. Bean, Nordstrom, Bloomingdales, New Balance-these are just a few of the companies that have been drawn into Trump's spindly web of political and existential divisiveness. Trump wants a battle line drawn. He wants war. And if you're not for him, you're against him. Whether it's actual, literal war or simply a dogmatic war remains to be seen. What's clear is that we wants, needs, to stoke the flames of partition.

How can this possibly be a good thing? No matter your politics, we all have beliefs that contrast with those around us. Chances are you have friends and family on the other side of the divide, and hopefully you haven't written them off. But Trump wants you to. He wants families to hate each other. He wants friends to stop speaking. He wants fashion designers to declare war on each other, predicated on whether or not each will or will not design clothes for his wife. He wants companies to make their political interests known so that he can either celebrate them or drive them into the ground.

Ironically, of course, his celebrating them has as much chance of driving them into the ground as not. And that's because he is fueling hatred and disdain and the idea that it's acceptable to reject anything not like you. Trump didn't create this world, but he's fanned the flames of it into an uncontrollable blaze. And now here we are, trying to decide whether or not we'll shop at a 105-year old American company (that still makes its boots in the USA!) not because the company itself made a political statement, but because one of the 50-plus owners did.

If this is the new normal, we're in trouble. Fashion will no longer be about creativity and self-expression, or even utility. It will be about political alignment. Companies will have to decide what side of the aisle they're going to sell to, and then hope that they made the right choice. And what industry can survive, apart from politics itself, on a diet consisting solely of political alignment?

Trump could have tweeted something different today, something along the lines of, "I don't care if L.L. Bean supports me or not, it's an American company working to keep jobs in the States, so everyone should support it." But he didn't. He dragged it-unwillingly-into the political mire. And now here we are.

If this is a glimpse of the next four years, and of where fashion and retail and everything else are headed, then I promise you, this country, this world, will become a significantly darker place.

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