Florida Republicans have moved to end Disney World’s self-governing status after Disney decided to enter the political arena on behalf of the Democratic Party. Whether that’s a good move or not, this is precisely what Disney and other corporations have invited with their political posturing.
Disney picked a fight with the Florida GOP over a bill that would prevent classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity for children in the third grade or lower. In doing so, Disney willfully jumped into a political debate to oppose a bill (now law) that is popular across all demographics, even across partisan lines. But the Democratic Party told Disney to jump, and the House of Mouse asked, “How high?”
Whether it is good that Republicans are essentially exacting revenge by revoking Disney’s special status or not, it is the inevitable result of Disney making itself a cultural arm of the Democratic Party. And this is not unique to Disney: Major corporations of all stripes have completely bought in to the Democratic Party’s cultural battles, whether they believe in the causes or are simply afraid of mean tweets from activists or unfavorable media coverage.
We have since seen the results. According to the Pew Research Center, the share of Republicans who think large corporations have a positive effect on the country dropped from 54% in 2019 to 30% in 2021. Over that same time period, Democrats’ support for corporations has jumped only from 23% to 28%. Corporations like Disney have declared cultural war against the GOP, the pro-business party that generally favors fewer regulations, on behalf of Democrats who would rather crush them.
In 2019, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders released a plan to “end corporate corruption and greed” that included reviewing and undoing corporate mergers approved under the Trump administration. He specifically singled out Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox. Sanders has repeatedly railed against Disney’s “greed” and “starvation wages.” This is whom Disney has chosen to align with.
The same is true for other woke corporations. Amazon has been the target of President Joe Biden. House Democrats have put a target on Facebook, Google, and Apple. And Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren has been chomping at the bit to use antitrust legislation against the same woke corporations that serve on the front lines in the Democratic Party’s culture wars.
Conservatives and Republicans are not going to be running to the defense of Disney over its special status being revoked, and they won’t be standing in between woke corporations and the Democratic Party’s antitrust warriors either. Disney and other corporations chose to become talking point parrots for a party that hates their very existence. They will now have to lie in the bed they made for themselves.
