Gov. Jared Polis (D) on Tuesday enticed woke Disney and Twitter to relocate their headquarters in Colorado to evade oversight.
In light of Twitter and Disney’s respective feuds with Gov. Ron DeSantis, Polis has reversed the Democrats’ stereotypical position on over-regulating business by stating the woke corporations will be free from government oversight in Colorado.
“Florida’s authoritarian socialist attacks on the private sector are driving businesses away,” Polis claimed. “In CO, we don’t meddle in affairs of companies like @Disney or @Twitter. Hey @Disney we’re ready for Mountain Disneyland and @twitter we’re ready for Twitter HQ2, whoever your owners are.”
On Tuesday, DeSantis aimed at Twitter for potentially violating their fiduciary responsibility by rejecting Elon Musk’s purchase price for the company. Board members of public corporations are bound to operate the company in the best interest of shareholders.
“We’re gonna be looking at ways the state of Florida potentially can be holding these Twitter board of directors accountable for breaching their fiduciary duty,” DeSatnis said. The proposed initiative is predicated on the state of Florida apparently holding a stake in Twitter.
Regarding Disney, DeSantis has proposed terminating the company’s Reedy Creek Improvement District because they have pursued anti-family, transgender programming for young children. The Reedy Creek Improvement District is a 50-year-old special statute that shields Disney from laws faced by regular Floridians. The statute allows Walt Disney World to self-govern.
On Wednesday, the Florida Senate voted to remove that exemption in a DeSantis-ordered special session. The Florida House will vote tomorrow. It is unknown if establishment House Speaker Chris Spowls (R) will whip the votes to pass the measure. Disney is a very powerful force and Florida and has a huge hold on establishment politicians.
Polis’s response to DeSantis’s actions to hold woke corporations accountable for stakeholders, such as families, local communities, and voters, is a ninety-degree turnaround from how Democrats have typically viewed business. Known as being opposed to big business to protect blue color workers, Polis’s pitch to Disney and Twitter notes a foundational change, one that protects big business instead of American families.
On the other hand, establishment Republicans, known to be in league with big business, have lost the GOP infighting with conservative Republicans who champion America First policies. Conservative Republicans have assumed the mantle of cracking down on unjust corporate practices, reclaiming the mantle from the New Deal-like Democrats.
During the 1890-1930s, Democrats lead the effort to break up monopolized business. The legislation was heralded at the time as radical but in the interest of the American worker.
In modern politics, conservative Republicans are the leading advocates of breaking up big tech and squelching the Democrats’ culture war within big business generally.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter and Gettr @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.