The level of acrimony between the blue and the red in the United States has increased so precipitously in the past decade that many people on both sides of the issue have begun to ponder whether it’s time for a national divorce. Sadly, it seems this may already be taking place in some ways, as Americans relocate in accordance with their political and social beliefs. And now, the process is entering a political-economic phase with the announcement of a multi-state alliance to combat ESG (“environmental, social, governance”) policies.
“Deeply divided Americans are sorting themselves into ever-redder and bluer states that better align with their personal ideologies,” I wrote last summer:
Nearly a third of the people surveyed (30%) said they had thought about moving in the past six months. Of those, a solid majority of both Republicans (58%) and Democrats (55%) reported a preference for moving to a state where the government aligned better with their personal politics. An even greater percentage — 65% of Republicans and 69% of Democrats — preferred a new home that was a better fit for their cultural and social values. Republicans were most apt to move to lower-tax states, while Democrats were lured by abortions, rainbow-sex people, and the quest for that ever-elusive racial equality.
The caveat was that cost of living and family concerns were the most important motivators for relocators, but politics and values were still a considerable factor. Much of the migration that occurred in the past couple of years was spurred by flight from strict-lockdown locations — which were naturally blue areas — as people sought freedom.
Related: MTG Wants a National Divorce
By late last fall, my colleague Mark Tapscott reported that polls showed the relocations are expected to gain momentum: “the trend is going to be accelerating in coming years, and that means the alignments of national politics may well be about to shift big-time.”
Regarding what I called “the great self-sorting,” I wrote, “While hotheads on the internet like to talk big about civil wars and revolutions, most people understand that would be hell on earth. But as politics and culture become more aggressive and divisive every day, cooler heads nonetheless fantasize about a great national divorce. If enough Americans keep voting with their feet, many intractably interwoven systems could conceivably sort themselves into distinct geographic entities over time.” Now, a major announcement from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis indicates this may be starting to happen.
DeSantis has already worked with the Florida state legislature to cure the Walt Disney Co. of its infatuation with wokeness, ending the long-standing Reedy Creek Improvement District special deal Disney World had enjoyed since 1967. And last month, Florida passed legislation to “Protect Floridians from the Woke ESG Financial Scam” that will wring the ESG-DEI nonsense out of the state’s financial sector.
DeSantis has now taken the initiative to his counterparts outside Florida. Last week, he announced the formation of a 19-state coalition that will fight and ban ESG-based financial policies. “Today, Governor Ron DeSantis and the governors of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming formed an alliance to push back against President Biden’s environmental, social, corporate governance (ESG) agenda that is destabilizing the American economy and the global financial system,” said DeSantis’s office in a statement released Thursday.
“We as freedom loving states can work together and leverage our state pension funds to force change in how major asset managers invest the money of hardworking Americans, ensuring corporations are focused on maximizing shareholder value, rather than the proliferation of woke ideology,” declared the 19 states that have so far signed onto the declaration. It goes on to say:
Retirees, already suffering from the reckless fiscal policies of the Biden Administration, will continue to experience diminished returns on the investment of their hard-earned money while the corporate elite continue to use their economic power to impose policies on the country that they could not achieve at the ballot box.
The proliferation of ESG throughout America is a direct threat to the American economy, individual economic freedom, and our way of life, putting investment decisions in the hands of the woke mob to bypass the ballot box and inject political ideology into investment decisions, corporate governance, and the everyday economy.
The signatories propose to protect citizens from woke Big Banking by leading state-level efforts:
I. Protecting taxpayers from ESG influences across state systems: Among other actions, this may include blocking the use of ESG in all investment decisions at the state and local level, ensuring that only financial factors are considered to maximize the return on investment, protecting retirees and taxpayers alike. This may also include eliminating consideration of ESG factors by state and local governments when issuing bonds or prohibiting state fund managers from considering ESG factors when investing taxpayer money.
II. Protecting citizens from ESG influences in the financial sector: Among other actions, this may include banning the financial sector from considering so called “Social Credit Scores” in banking and lending practices aimed to prevent citizens from obtaining financial services like loans, lines of credit, and bank accounts. This may also include stopping financial institutions
from discriminating against customers for their religious, political, or social beliefs, such as owning a firearm, securing the border, or increasing our energy independence.
The alliance comes none too soon. On Monday, “President” Joe Biden exercised his first veto on a bipartisan bill that had cleared both the U.S. House and the Senate — a rare feat these days! The legislation would have terminated a Dept. of Labor rule that allows asset managers to rely on ESG principles as part of their investment strategy decision-making process.
The declaration was signed by the governors of the allied states. If it is successful in attaining its goals — and there’s no reason to think it won’t be — more such agreements will likely follow. And thus, over time, the two Americas will continue to grow farther apart, in philosophy, culture, and law. It’s possible to imagine a day when the final separation into the Globalist-Socialist States of America and the Free States of America may come down to nothing more than a formality.
No one wants to see the disunion of the greatest nation the world has ever known, but such a scenario would be the least tragic way for it to happen.
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