For the past couple of weeks, FOX News host Tucker Carlson has been on the interview circuit, promoting his book Ship of Fools: How a Selfish Ruling Class Is Bringing America to the Brink of Revolution. The Republican Party, he has noted, must become the party of the middle class—in other words, many of the voters who turned out for Donald Trump. The Democrats was once the blue collar party, but have transformed into the party of the very rich (the elites) and the very poor (those on government assistance). The irony in all of this is that the GOP is somewhat in denial, and still resolutely cling to the idea that they are the party of Big Business (consider the tax cuts for large corporations, rather than the tax cuts for the middle class that Marco Rubio and Steve Bannon were pushing for.) The GOP, Carlson believes, must either evolve or cease being a viable party.
Interestingly, there is another reason that the Republican Party’s dedication to Big Business is suicidal: The corporations have declared open war on the GOP’s longstanding base of social conservatives. Time and again, the Left has used the power of Big Business to ramrod through and subsequently enforce their radical progressive social agenda, even using effective boycotts to force states to back down on religious liberty protections. In short, the GOP is enthusiastic about giving tax breaks to corporations that are wielding their financial power to culturally transform the United States of America along radical progressive lines.
Consider the response of Big Business to the Trump Administration’s attempt to halt the political blitzkrieg of the trans activists, as cited gleefully by LGBTQ Nation:
Dozens of major companies have warned the Trump administration to stop attacking transgender people. 56 corporations joined the statement to “oppose any administrative and legislative efforts to erase transgender protections.”
“Treating all people fairly, equally and with respect is the very core of IBM’s values. We believe no one should be discriminated against for being who they are,” Tia Silas, Global Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer for IBM said in an emailed statement.
“That’s why we’re proud to stand in support of the transgender and entire LGBT+ communities, and it’s why we will continue advocating for Congress to pass the Equality Act and ensure transgender individuals are treated equally under the law.”
Collectively, the companies employ nearly 4.8 million people and generate more than $2.4 trillion in annual revenue:
We, the undersigned businesses, stand with the millions of people in America who identify as transgender, gender non-binary, or intersex, and call for all such people to be treated with the respect and dignity everyone deserves.
We oppose any administrative and legislative efforts to erase transgender protections through reinterpretation of existing laws and regulations. We also fundamentally oppose any policy or regulation that violates the privacy rights of those that identify as transgender, gender non-binary, or intersex.
In the last two decades, dozens of federal courts have affirmed the rights and identities of transgender people. Cognizant of growing medical and scientific consensus, courts have recognized that policies that force people into a binary gender definition determined by birth anatomy fail to reflect the complex realities of gender identity and human biology.
Recognizing that diversity and inclusion are good for business, and that discrimination imposes enormous productivity costs (and exerts undue burdens), hundreds of companies, including the
undersigned, have continued to expand inclusion for transgender people across corporate America. Currently more than 80 percent of the Fortune 500 have clear gender identity protections; two-thirds have transgender-inclusive healthcare coverage; hundreds have LGBTQ+ and Allies business resource groups and internal training efforts.
Transgender people are our beloved family members and friends, and our valued team members. What harms transgender people harms our companies.
We call for respect and transparency in policy-making, and for equality under the law for transgender people.
Now take a look at the companies who signed this letter, and consider the economic leverage and sheer financial power this coalition can wield—and how Republicans who still see themselves as the party of Big Business must think when the scan the list:
Accenture
Adobe Systems Inc.
Airbnb
Altria Group
Amalgamated Bank
Amazon
American Airlines
Apple
Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP)
Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Ben & Jerry’s Homemade
BNY Mellon
Cargill
Cisco Systems Inc.
Citi
Clifford Chance
Corning Incorporated
Corteva Agriscience™, the Agriculture Division of DowDuPont
Deutsche Bank
E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company
Facebook
Fastly, Inc.
Google
Hogan Lovells International LLP
HSBC
IBM Corporation
Intel Corporation
Intuit Inc.
Iron Mountain
JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Levi Strauss & Co.
LinkedIn
Lush Handmade Cosmetics
Lyft
Marriott International
MassMutual
MGM Resorts International
Microsoft Corp.
Nike Inc.
PepsiCo
Replacements, Ltd.
Ropes & Gray
Royal Bank of Canada
S&P Global
Salesforce
Sheppard Mullin
Sodexo Inc.
Splunk
State Street Corporation
The Coca-Cola Company
The Dow Chemical Company
TiVo Corporation
Trillium Asset Management
Twitter Inc.
Uber
Warby Parker
You’ll notice that included on this list are all of the social media giants—something that does not bode well for the ability of social conservatives to continue to use those platforms freely. Another of Carlson’s passions is advocating for the government to step in and break up the information monopoly, which he believes will actually gain the power to divide and destroy the republic in the coming years.
This goes a long way in explaining the Republican Party’s current crisis of identity. One base of voters: evangelicals, pro-lifers, and those simply sick of the relentless social engineering of the Left, is at direct odds with nearly every major corporation in the nation. It is the very definition of a David and Goliath battle: Those who control much of the media, the academic institutions, the entertainment industry, and the corporations are arrayed against the Little Guy, who has very little control over his own life, much less anything else.
But the Little Guy can vote, and the Republicans must decide: Are they going to become the party that their voters want them to become, or are they going to go to Washington DC and promptly pass legislation that benefits the very corporations attacking their voters and the traditional American way of life? As Carlson noted, political parties only exist to serve the interests of their voters (not their donors), and furious voters used Donald Trump as a blunt instrument to remind the establishment of that fact.
If the GOP remains the party of Big Business, it will mean political suicide for them and cultural suicide for us. The corporations have picked their team. The Republicans must do so, too.
For anyone interested, my book on The Culture War, which analyzes the journey our culture has taken from the way it was to the way it is and examines the Sexual Revolution, hook-up culture, the rise of the porn plague, abortion, commodity culture, euthanasia, and the gay rights movement, is available for sale here.
