Leftist policy harms corporations and commerce. High taxes, overbearing regulations, uncontrolled crime, insane political correctness, gender ideology, racist (and Marxist) Diversity Equity and Inclusion programming…the list of Democrat ideals that harm the conduct of business are essentially endless. So why is corporate America paying for the left to punish them? In 2020, there were 30 races for the U.S. Senate. Democrats outraised and outspent Republicans in 22 of them. Collectively, Senate Republicans raised about $430 million. Senate Democrats raised $716 million. Among candidates for the House of Representatives, Democrats were able to outspend their Republican counterparts by another $75 million. And it doesn’t end there, Democrats are outraising and outspending Republicans at virtually every level – from school boards to the Presidency. The results are predictable, but you have to wonder why wealthy individuals and corporations would contribute to their own diminution this way.
I recently had a first-hand seat to this phenomenon. After almost 5 years serving as chief-of-staff to one of the current Phoenix City Councilmembers, I decided to run for his seat. I didn’t do so on a wing and a prayer. Before throwing my hat in the ring, I met with a number of the major funders for local council elections – land-use attorneys, developers, builders, etc. Had they not pledged significant support, I would never have run. But they did, so I did. Then something happened. The Democrat Mayor of Phoenix, Kate Gallego, called them and demanded they fund her chosen candidate instead. According to multiple potential donors, Gallego made it very clear that if they didn’t do as she asked, any business they had with the city would be at risk. She stopped just short of actual threats that would have been subject to legal scrutiny, but the arm-twisting message was clear: do what I tell you to do, or there will be consequences.
I got hung out to dry, left fighting a million-dollar campaign with less than $250,000. Had the finances been somewhat even, could I have won? Maybe. It wouldn’t have been assured. I’ll be the first to admit that I wasn’t a perfect candidate. Some voters didn’t like me because I had worked for Gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, others objected to my colorful opinions and Twitter account. Ok, fine. But without the resources to combat the relentless, deceptive, and fallacious attacks my opponent was levying (he accused me, for example, of being a white supremacist despite knowing I’m Jewish) I didn’t have a chance. And that, of course, was the point.
In the near future, Phoenix will massively raise water rates and property taxes, likely pursue an increase in our sales tax rate, force unionization on builders, continue gutting our police department, and roll out a host of “reforms” to our judicial system to match the pro-criminal policies of most other blue bastions. I would have fought those things. The guy who won? He’s there specifically to help our leftist Mayor implement them.
We didn’t get to this nadir in corporate citizenship by accident. After Barack Obama’s victory in 2008, some of his staff wrote a book called The Blueprint. The idea behind The Blueprint was simple: stop spending money on big-blue state primaries, get Democrat coastal mega-donors to refocus on the Mountain West, and overwhelm first Colorado, then Nevada, followed by Arizona and eventually Texas with cash. Flood them with blue-green. The financial power of the coastal states virtually ensures that Republican donors in these states will be vastly outmatched, allowing leftist candidates to win control of local institutions, then use those institutions to funnel even more cash into Democrat coffers. Once entrenched, no matter how terrible their policy outcomes, ousting them has proven almost impossible in states whose electorate is concentrated in a handful of large metropolises.
So why are America’s financial and corporate elite aggressively supporting a Party whose candidates consistently promote policies that will harm their bottom lines and turn both their personal and professional lives into a cancel-culture minefield? The answer is as distressing as the outcome. Only Democrats have shown they are willing to literally burn down cities to get their way. Only Democrats have shown they are willing to brand someone a racist for trying to stop people from shoplifting. Only Democrats have shown they are willing to throw away law and order and cast society to the dogs of war. Republicans aren’t willing to fight fire with fire. And corporate America knows it. How’s that boycott of Disney going?
What’s the answer? Republicans are not suddenly going to become law-breaking, cancelling, fire-starting radicals like the left, nor should we. What we can and should do is opt-out. The recent explosion of the school choice movement holds the key. Instead of trying to reform a broken system parents are choosing alternative options at a staggering rate, with Republican lawmakers supporting them by making public education funding follow the student, not the system. The resulting panic among public teacher’s unions shows that reformers are on the right track. In the coming years, strong private and charter school systems in many states will be churning out smart, well-educated graduates in ever-greater numbers while their public-school counterparts continue to wallow in failure and fake outrage. The education gap between the systems will continue to grow, as will demand for the quality educational options while the left continues to buttress a failed system.
Republicans now need to do the same thing in banking, retail commerce, restaurants…the entire system. Don’t waste time fighting the power, starve the power. Take our money and run straight to like-minded businesses who refuse to capitulate to the histrionics and violence of the left. We don’t have to beat ‘em, we certainly don’t have to join ‘em. We win just by spurning them.
Sam Stone is the co-host of Breaking Battlegrounds and a former candidate for the Phoenix City Council
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