Yes, I have. I have defended Wal-Mart before.

And not for any in-depth political reasons, either. Just for topical observations I made a couple of years ago, when I spent some time in rural Illinois.

You know, you go to some of these extreme “fly-over zone” towns, the ones that subsist off outlying farms and a few totally locally owned businesses, and you see places in which there are no, and I mean NO job openings to speak of. A lot of families are simply clinging to their homes and eating on budgets that rate genuine pity…

There’s a Wal-Mart in town, luckily, that employs hundreds of locals in the entire range of retail. Most of the people who live in town are poor.

Wal-Mart is sort of a nucleus: It supports the locals — not just the economy, but the people. It sells them the luxuries higher income, large city residents enjoy at a fraction of the price that they can afford while simultaneously furnishing the means to buy.

Sure, a lot of people have reasons to share as to why they hate, or disapprove, of Wal-Mart. I’m personally pretty bottom-line when it comes to Retail. Wal-Mart is Retail with a vengeance; it employs an awesome amount of people who might not otherwise have any work at all or people who haven’t got any credentials but possess strong business, supervisory or merchandising aptitudes and affords them the opportunity to move ahead in the company’s hierarchy.

Right, Wal-Mart is a corporate dynasty, but it is positive — it contributes to our economy on every front.

The left don’t like that, because they don’t believe that individuals who work hard, sacrifice and succeed should live any better than those who live off government largesse. Except, of course, for themselves.

Bummer.

Most of Wal-Mart’s inventory originates in China. China is our enemy, though no-one in the media seems to explore that fact, but on the other hand, the more capitalist ventures we share with Beijing firms, the more people we can place in China and the better HUMINT we can harvest. I’m all for that, given the fact that we will eventually have a reckoning with them, and it won’t be small potatoes.

But back to Wal-Mart — I was actually inspired to write this post by another post by Raven, of And Rightly So fame.

Wal-Mart’s greatest crime was the crime of success, the prime target of liberals, whose actual agenda is socialism, but the term “liberal” sounds better. Heh.

Think of the left as a pack of wild dogs with mange, a significant percentage rabid, descending upon any newsworthy “target of opportunity,” for the sole purpose of transforming the U.S. Constitution into the Communist Manifesto.

WTF are they thinking!?