Unless you’ve been living under a rock the last few years, you’ve undoubtedly been witnessing the hyper-politicization of corporate America. From Facebook to Coca-Cola to JP Morgan, nearly every large American company or corporation is going “woke” and bowing to the cancel culture mob. Corporations are willingly and, in some cases, enthusiastically becoming political arms of left-wing causes.
Take, for example, what happened in Florida just this week. The duly-elected Florida Legislature passed a law on age-appropriate gender and sexual education in schools that was, in turn, signed by the duly-elected governor of that state — only to have Disney, one of the largest companies in the country, attack the law before the ink was even dry. Disney didn’t stop there. In a widely-viewed online video, Disney executives said their parks will no longer refer to guests as “ladies and gentlemen” or “boys and girls” and the company is implementing a “not-at-all-secret gay agenda.” All the while, Disney keeps doing business with China and doesn’t say a word about the Uyghur genocide going on there.
Last year, it was Coca-Cola and Delta Airlines throwing a temper tantrum over a new election integrity law passed by the Georgia Legislature. Not to be outdone, Major League Baseball bowed to the cancel culture mob and moved the All-Star Game out of the state. Those companies (and leftist politicians all over the country) propagandized the law and misled the public to the point even the president earned “Four Pinocchios” from the Washington Post for his false claims about the law.
There’s no denying it, we are living in a time of corporate wokeness where CEOs and boardrooms are more interested in social engineering and left-wing political pandering. They want to impose their political beliefs and cultural biases on the American people, and they want to use our money to pay for it.
Corporate wokeness now has a new target – our Second Amendment rights. Some might remember President Obama’s Operation Choke Point. The former president launched this attack, using the power of the FDIC and the DOJ, to force banks, financial institutions and payment processors to refuse essential services, like financing and capital, to gun and ammo manufacturers. They worked to literally cut off the money supply for the firearms industry in a backdoor attempt to prevent Americans from exercising their constitutionally-protected right to keep and bear arms.
Operation Choke Point, thankfully, was kicked out the door, along with President Obama when he left office, but some of the banks used in Operation Choke Point carried on his efforts. Some of the biggest banks in the country (Bank of America and Citigroup, among others) are now using their own customers’ money to deny gun manufacturers access to capital and are even refusing to process transactions for Americans and Missourians wanting to exercise their Second Amendment rights.
We can’t sit by submissively and let this happen. If we do, what will woke corporations attack next? Our First Amendment right to free speech? Big Tech giants like Facebook and Twitter are already doing that. We need to fight back, and the way we do that is to express the will of the people through their elected bodies – like legislatures. That’s exactly what I am doing. This week, my Senate Bill 1048 was heard in committee. This bill simply states that if a company or corporation has an anti-gun policy then they can’t benefit from any state and local contracts in Missouri. It’s that simple. These companies can still have their woke policies, if they want. They just won’t be making money off of the taxpayers if they do. These big banks will complain and say they shouldn’t have to do this, and make unfounded claims that costs will go up, but they have no problem making money off the taxpayers through government contracts, and they had no problem taking a $700 billion taxpayer-funded bailout in 2008.
The battle lines are clearly drawn. On one side is big banks and woke corporations. On the other side is the Second Amendment to the Constitution and the people who exercise that right to protect themselves, their families and their property. I know which side I am on, and I know it past time we call out these woke corporations for what they are doing to our state and country. That’s why I filed SB 1048 and why I will always stand up for our constitutionally-protected, God-given rights.
If you have any ideas, questions and concern, please feel free to contact me at the State Capitol: (573) 751-2108, rick.brattin@senate.mo.gov or by writing to Sen. Rick Brattin, Missouri State Capitol, Room 331, Jefferson City, MO 65101.
God bless and thank you for the opportunity to work for you in the Missouri Senate.