Abortions Laws Are Bad For Business, 200 CEOs Who Don't Understand What a Customer Base Is Declare

Let's just stick with our primary identity as the party that does nothing but favors for leftwing corporations.

It's working like gangbusters so far.

Say, are there any other Democrat Client Groups we can dedicate our political lives to servicing? Maybe we should do endless favors for Black Lives Matter and Planned Parenthood, too. I know one of those is incorporated and I bet the other one is a corporation too.

The CEOs of more than 180 companies signed an open letter arguing that state laws restricting women's reproductive rights are "bad for business." Policies such as Georgia's fetal heartbeat law people's "hinder people's health... and ability to fully succeed in the workplace," the executives maintain. A number of major film and media companies, including Walt Disney and Netflix, have suggested they may avoid productions in states with heartbeat bills. Chief executives of more than 180 companies are urging lawmakers to step back from restrictive abortion laws, arguing that they "hinder people's health, independence and ability to fully succeed in the workplace."

The open letter also contends that anti-abortion policies are "bad for business." Among the corporate leaders signing the letter are Atlantic Records & Warner Music Group's Julie Greenwald, Bloomberg's Peter Grauer, Slack Technologies' Stewart Butterfield, Square's Jack Dorsey and Yelp's Jeremy Stoppelman. Other CEOs included the fashion mogul Diane von Furstenberg and talent agency chief Ariel Emanuel.

Via Gail Heridot at Instapundit, who observes, "Increasingly, CEOs want to be seen as persons of the left. And to be seen as a lefty, one has to support the left on every single issue."

Increasingly, I suppose, but it has been this way forever. Even the "Republican" corporatists are of the social-liberal "libertarian" variety. They are products of leftwing colleges and they live in leftwing cities. They are also careerist chameleons who adopt the mores, tastes, and habits of others in the corporate class for purposes of career advancement.

Sorry, but, I know a lot of these guys. I went to school with them. I see them now, if rarely.

But I hear about them through friends.

I don't particularly dislike them, but I know their politics. Even the Republican ones -- or "Republican" ones -- are masters of the formulation, "I usually vote Republican but I'm not like those rural inbred maniacs. I only vote Republican on economics."

I don't think there's anything wrong with putting your career (and your family fortune) above ideology -- some would say that is a conservative tendency -- but it's simply jackass to pretend this cadre (as a whole, as a group) is in any meaningful way affiliated with the right. They're part of the right when they want a favor for their business or a tax advantage; otherwise, they salute every rainbow-colored flag the left runs up the flag-pole.

And it's not just that they're secretly True Conservatives but Playing the Corporate Game by adopting a public liberal line. No one really lives their lives that way -- not for long.

People don't like lying or counterfeiting their true beliefs, so if someone is in a situation for more than a few years where they are required to lie about their true beliefs, they will change their beliefs so that they are in accordance with that which their social cohort demands. That is, they will stop lying, but only because the lie has become the truth.

People just don't like living split lives like that. If the dominant urban liberal millieu demands that they despise Republicans who do not hew to every new demand made by zealous social liberal crusaders, they will simply change their beliefs over time so that they honestly embrace almost the entirety of the social liberal agenda.

They're not necessarily bad people, but they are people, and people tend to adapt their personalities and beliefs to create as little social friction with their social cohort as possible.

It takes someone with a very strong sense of personal sovereignty and willpower to resist this natural process of incorporation into the herd.

And it's lunacy to continue pretending they are core members of the conservative coalition. They are barely members at all, and only members of convenience when they have something they want from the actual coalition.

They're the first to defect in almost any situation. I know some corporate types who were actually among the hardest of hard conservatives when I knew them at school who fundraised for Hillary Clinton in the last election.

They're Bill Kristol types, except they come by their money more honestly.

They don't have to be treated with any special enmity, but it's time to stop treating them with any favor or privilege. Treat them as you would labor unions -- if there's some political deal that can be struck, strike it, but stop doing favors for them under the completely-jackass assumption that they're members of the conservative movement.

They're not. At best, they're independents leaning liberal.

Yes, there are some genuine conservatives high in the ranks of corporations who resist the Siren song of getting along well with your fellow liberals in the corporation, but they're rare birds, and even more rarely can express their conservatsm in anything more than whispers among some carefully-chosen confidants.

posted by Ace of Spades at 05:07 PM

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