Ted Cruz is telling corporate CEOs that Republicans will no longer stand by while they cower in fear of radical left rage. The Texas senator has pledged not to take any more PAC money from corporations and is warning the businessmen that the GOP no longer has their backs.
The issue that set Cruz off was the clueless and craven response by many corporations to the efforts by Republicans around the country to promote election integrity. The senator cited several incomprehensible statements by various CEOs on the Georgia election law that has resulted in boycotts and pledges by companies not to do business in Georgia.
Cruz’s warnings were explicit and went into detail.
This time, we won’t look the other way on Coca-Cola’s $12 billion in back taxes owed. This time, when Major League Baseball lobbies to preserve its multibillion-dollar antitrust exception, we’ll say no thank you. This time, when Boeing asks for billions in corporate welfare, we’ll simply let the Export-Import Bank expire.
For too long, woke CEOs have been fair-weather friends to the Republican Party: They like us until the left’s digital pitchforks come out. Then they run away. Or they mouth off on legislation they don’t understand—and hurt the reputations of patriotic leaders protecting our elections and expanding the right to vote. Enough is enough. Corporations that flagrantly misrepresent efforts to protect our elections need to be called out, singled out and cut off.
Given that several Republican lawmakers have said almost the same thing, we could be witnessing the beginnings of a political earthquake — Republicans abandoning corporatism in favor of a more populist, Main Street message.
For too long, Republicans have allowed the left and their big-business allies to attack our values with no response. We’ve allowed them to ship jobs overseas, attack gun rights, and destroy our energy companies. We’ve let them smear Republicans without paying any price.
As America’s greatest basketball player observed years ago, Republicans buy sneakers, too. We cast votes, too. And we pay attention when CEOs come after our own just so they can look good for a few editorial pages and radical activists.
It’s something that needed to be said, but will it do any good?
Conservatives don’t do boycotts very well. We don’t do any kind of collective action very well either. Conservatism is far too much of an individualistic ideology to allow for these things. It’s one reason corporations don’t fear the right.
But hitting them where it hurts might prove useful. Right now, corporations are playing ball with the radicals, hoping to keep the mob from targeting them. In essence, they’re hoping the crocodile eats them last. They see no upside PR-wise in siding with the right. There is no incentive to stand by their friends when they’re under this kind of ruthless assault.
But the left’s entire case against election reforms has to do with advancing the false narrative that the people who write these laws and those enforcing them have a history of suppressing the black vote rather than there being any real objections to the actual content of the laws. In the case of the Georgia election law, it was an easy sell to anyone who hasn’t read it. Georgia has an ugly history of voter suppression and raising the specter of Jim Crow and “poll taxes” and “literacy tests” is a very effective propaganda tool.
The CEOs either fell for it or surrendered their integrity to say they believe it. They deserve whatever they get.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member