4/9/21
Republicans’ relationship with corporations is baffling. One minute, they are protecting corporations from what they envision as a marauding band of liberals. The next, they are the marauding band trying to silence corporations if they get too mouthy. For the longest time — forever, really — I thought being pro-business was woven into the DNA of the GOP, especially when it comes to walling off corporations from such things as regulation and taxation. In this regard, Republicans were true to form in denouncing President Biden’s “American Jobs Plan.” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) decried what he called “massive tax increases” in the $2.3 trillion legislation. Last weekend, he declared that the Biden proposal would undo “the tax relief that drove our economy to a 50-year high.” Then, after losing Georgia in the presidential election and the state’s two Senate seats to Democrats, Republicans in Atlanta rammed through a law that limits ballot access. Coca-Cola and Delta spoke out against it. Major League Baseball moved the All-Star Game from the state in response.
All this happened after a group of 72 Black business leaders called on their colleagues to fight the rising wave of voter restrictions in Georgia and elsewhere. At first, McConnell went ballistic. “Corporations will invite serious consequences if they become a vehicle for far-left mobs to hijack our country from outside the constitutional order.” McConnell wasn’t the only outraged Republican. His counterparts in the Georgia statehouse attempted to strip Delta of its fuel tax break. Other Republicans called for boycotts of MLB, Coca-Cola and Delta, including Trump. Today’s Republican Party is eager to silence corporations that stand by their values and those of their employees and customers. No value is more worthy of active protection than the right to vote of every citizen. While Republicans whine about the “woke,” the rest of us are wide-eyed about what the GOP is doing and why they are doing it. They aren’t fooling anyone with their hypocrisy.
