The Corporatism of the Left By James Reed

Daniel Greenfield gives a good exposition of how the modern Left have embraced corporatism, the idea that corporations not only rule the world, but should, something not seen since Mussolini fascism. This is, at first glance, unusual since anyone familiar with the Left in the 1960s would have noticed a 180-degree turnaround here. Then, corporations were the essence of evil capitalism, exploiting the Third World. Once up until the 1970s one could do university courses on development and imperialism, where neo-Marxist in lengthy tomes, weighed in on this. But that was then, and now what has happened is that the Left has moved from being outright anti-capitalist, to woke, promoting politically correct agendas, such as transgenderism, as part of their “soft revolution,” and under George Soros, a coloured revolution. Corporations have also embraced this, wanting to get the progressive money, and not wanting to appear to be in any way opposed to the latest craze. As both the Left and the corporates are globalists at heart, one from ideology, the other from profits, the two forces of evil have gravitated towards each other.  

https://robertspencer.org/2022/05/disney-dems-think-corporations-should-be-our-governments

“Leftists used to hate corporations. Now they want them to rule over us.

Democrats, after spending the last decade sneering that Republicans believe “corporations are people”, have found a new group of oppressed victims to shelter, protect, and fight for.

Corporations.

Not since a bunch of men decided that they want to shower with teenage girls and join their swim teams, have lefties turned around their core beliefs faster than hotel bed sheets.

Biden ranted that the “far right has taken over the party” because, “…, they’re going after Mickey Mouse.” Of the two, you know which one Joe Biden believes in. Disney employees have directed over $1 million in cash to the Biden campaign. That’s something Biden can bow to.

The rest of the party and the movement is just as outraged that Gov. DeSantis stood up to a multinational corporation on behalf of the voters and parents of Florida.

“The Real Reason Today’s Republican Party Hates Corporations Like Disney,” wailed Will Bunch: the Philly Inquirer’s pet clickbait troll. Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado accused Gov. DeSantis of “authoritarian socialist attacks on the private sector”.  A Washington Post op-ed even charged Rep. Lauren Boebert with wanting to “cancel Mickey Mouse.”

All of these social justice energies are being expended to argue that a major multinational corporation should have a 39 square mile self-governing district with its own zoning laws, police and fire departments.

Forget corporations being people, Democrats want them to be governments.

Lefties used to be the biggest critics of special interest scams like the Reedy Creek Improvement District. A few years ago the media would have dug into the lies that were used to secure the territory on which Disney was going to build the homes of tomorrow, only to instead construct the tawdry resorts of yesterday where alligators can eat as many toddlers as they want and Silicon Valley types can spend $5K on the Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser hotel.

Now the media awkwardly pivots to declaring that corporations should have their own cities. Lefties loudly shout that only far-right extremists like Gov. DeSantis would ever question the idea that corporations should be able to make their own laws and have their own police forces.

Truly, those whom DeSantis would destroy, he first drives mad.

All of this started because Disney came out in opposition to a parental rights law that the majority of Republicans, Independents, and even Democrats supported. But Disney execs decided that kindergarteners need to be indoctrinated on sex no matter what Mom and Dad say.

Disney and the Democrats were pretty confident that Gov. DeSantis and Republicans would bow. Corporate and sports league pressure had shut down religious freedom laws and protections for women and girls from Indiana to Utah. Republican governors, when faced with threats of corporate boycotts, have repeatedly sold out their voters and bowed to the buck.

Gov. DeSantis not only refused to bow, he took away Disney’s state-within a state. The message is clear. Disney doesn’t rule in Florida, only the voters do. But Democrats want elected officials to listen to corporations. And they want those corporations to govern all of us.

They want Twitter, Facebook, Google, and other Big Tech companies to decide what we should be able to say and read. They want banks and credit card companies to stop us from donating to conservative causes or buying guns. And they want the corporations that employ us to be able to fire us the moment we express an unguarded thought they don’t like.

Corporate governance now means a monopolistic woke cartel using its wide scope of authority over national services, communications, and employment to suppress political dissent.

The Bill of Rights still occasionally keeps governments from doing some things, at least until they declare a political emergency due to a pandemic, a disputed election, or the day of the week, while nothing restrains the power of Google or Amazon to erase you from the internet while its stock price goes up another few billion thanks to the adultatory media coverage.

And since the same corps and leagues that give marching orders to cowardly GOP governors also take orders from Communist China, that means we’re really answering to Xi’s lackeys.

Like Disney.

But to the wokes, corporations have joined the totem pole of the oppressed, somewhere below suicide bombers in burkas, giant junkies who overdose while grappling with cops, tribal casino owners whiter than Elizabeth Warren, and bearded inmates of female correctional facilities.

You might say that what’s good for Disney is good for Democrats.

Should Disney have its own state within Florida? Mouseketeers, lefties want Disney to run the whole state. Much as they want the NCAA to run Indiana and Google the rest of the planet.

Gov. DeSantis refused to let his state become a Mickey Mouse operation. Some other governors, including Gov. Abbott in Texas, are joining him in declaring independence, not from the country, but from the cartel of woke corporations being used to set state policy.

Corporations, like governments, can be perfectly good and useful things. Like governments, they become a toxic assault on our rights and freedoms when they start telling us what to do.

And then they’re no different than any other form of tyranny.

Disney could have been perfectly happy churning out new Captain America and other superhero projects that had been signed off on by Chinese Communist censors while peddling $10 sodas and access to two hour lines in order to ride their politically correct roller coasters.

Instead, Disney execs decided to throw around their power beyond the confines of their self-governing banana republic and its endless collection of ramshackle ripoff resorts, and tried to rule over a state instead of just their unfortunate employees and customers.

Now, Disney is paying the price for its totalitarian hubris.

Some conservatives argue that this is “viewpoint discrimination”. And they might have a point if all Disney did was express an opinion. Corporate execs are entitled to their opinions like everyone else and corporations are free to express their concerns about what affects them. What they are not entitled to do is usurp the power of the government, its officials and its voters.

When corporations don’t limit their areas of interest to their business affairs and instead demand that states, cities, and communities must comply with every single leftist agenda item or face their wrath, then they become the real governments while the people are rendered powerless.

And nobody, or almost nobody except a few Florida Democrats, wants to be ruled by Disney.

After generations of class warfare populism, the new woke gentry want corporations to crush the peasant parents who think that they, not Disney, have the right to raise their children.

That’s not just an abandonment of their entire political movement and worldview going back two centuries, it’s an act of political suicide akin to electing Biden and Kamala during a crisis.

If lefties want to champion corporations as our new governments, they should run on that.

Surely Florida voters, not to mention Americans from all states, races, genders, creeds, and levels of drunkenness will happily embrace this brave new proposal for corporate governance.

After Disney is appointed to run Florida and consigns political opponents to cleaning the vomit out of Space Mountain, Facebook can take over California, filling the cities with golden statues of Zuckerberg, while Amazon rules over the Northwest with gulags of warehouses.

Nobody wants that dystopian insanity except the Left, which used to hate corporations, but now wants them to tell us what we can say, what we are allowed to think, and how we should live.”