This is what we need at this time and place. Perhaps spurred on by social media’s “bravery” in cutting ties to Trump, corporate America has decided to wake up and use some of its substantial power to wrestle this country back. Thankfully, they appear to want democracy and all the godless capitalism that goes with it. Mostly, they seem to want stability because no one makes money, nor can they enjoy it, in an insane nation.
Forbes is compiling a list of major corporations that have decided to yank all donations to any member of Congress that opposed the Electoral College, according to Forbes [1]:
Hotel giant Marriott International, the health insurance network Blue Cross Blue Shield, bank holding company Commerce Bancshares and Citibank, all told [2] Popular Information, a political newsletter run by ThinkProgress founder and editor Judd Legum, that they will stop donating to any member of Congress who objected to the certification of the Electoral College vote.
In addition to the vows to indefinitely suspend donations, Bank of America, Ford Motor Co. and AT&T all said they will take recent events into consideration before making future donations, while CVS Health Corp., Exxon Mobil, FexEx and Target said they are reviewing their political giving.
That is quite the list and it’s only Sunday (as of this writing) and thus the peer pressure that goes around in the business community hasn’t had time to change a lot of policies. But neither people in big business, nor politicians, want to live as pariahs without big money. Yesterday we reported that the Houston Chronicle called for Ted Cruz to resign and we specifically said, “If Exxon starts calling for Cruz to resign, at that point he’d have to listen and see …” Now look back above and know it’s not just Exxon and know that cutting financial ties is almost akin to calling for resignations.
One can be cynical and say, “Yeah, Trump’s on his way out the door and the Democrats took Congress, they’re just pivoting … ” and that’s true. On the other hand, it’s not like Ted Cruz, Hawley, et. al. are gone from Congress, or that it ever stopped these companies from giving before. This seems more like a rejection of chaos more than anything else.
The business community does best when the business climate is stable and they don’t need the government needlessly throwing things up in the air. One cannot price-in chaos. American business might be rising up to help this country. It appears they were just as mortified by what they saw.
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Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @JasonMiciak