Menards 'Civics Course' Teaches Employees The Values Of Limited Government, Low Taxation

Workers at a major home improvement retailer are getting company-sponsored lessons from the likes of Herman Cain on American government.

Menards, a popular Midwest home improvement chain, has been encouraging its employees to take an at-home civics course, AlterNet reports. The “civics” mostly involve Republican talking points -- you know, like limited government and taxation. The course, which the company has been pushing workers to take since the Iowa caucuses, includes information from Prosperity 101, a program developed by political operatives linked to the Koch brothers.

Though the Menards course manual obtained by AlterNet doesn’t tell employees to vote a certain way, it’s critical of “government takeovers of entire industries like health care,” as well as high taxation, cites former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain and claims that more 18-34 year olds believe in UFOs than Social Security.

“Our country is now in the middle of an experiment based on a broken economic premise: Government can drive demand and stimulate growth,” a manual for course 3 of the program, entitled “American Job Security,” states. A copy of the manual was obtained by AlterNet.

Menards is just one of many companies encouraging its workers to turn right. David Siegel, CEO of major timeshare chain Westgate Resorts, told his employees in an email last month that he would have no choice but to reduce the size of his company if Obama was reelected. Wynn Resorts, the third-largest casino operator in the country, mailed its 12,000 Nevada employees a voter guide last month. The company’s CEO told The Huffington Post that “I’m urging my employees to vote for Romney.”

Even Romney encouraged this behavior when he told business owners on a conference call in June to tell their workers who they support and what the election’s outcome will mean for their business.