Sorry Mitch, good American companies have been defending civil rights for decades
Republicans, and some in the media, are claiming that it's unprecedented that US companies are criticizing Georgia's new Jim Crow voter suppression law. In fact, corporate activism isn't new at all.
A growing number of American companies and organizations have publicly denounced the state of Georgia for adopting a new Jim Crow -style voter suppression law intended to take the right to vote away from Democratic voters, and Black Americans in particular.
The biggest splash this week came when Major League Baseball pulled the All-Star game from Atlanta and moved it to Denver, as a result of Georgia’s new law.
Georgia is one of several dozen states in which Republican politicians, unhappy with Trump’s 2020 election loss, are attempting to make voting more difficult for Democrats.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell angrily warned companies this week to “stay out of politics,” while media commentators portrayed corporate support for civil rights as a “new phase” of the “bitterly divided politics” between Republicans and Democrats.
In fact, American companies — not all, but some big names — have long been important partners in the civil rights battle, going back decades. I know because I was there.
I worked with Senator Ted Kennedy’s office back in the early 1990s, in an effort to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, ENDA — legislation to outlaw anti-gay job discrimination at the federal level. (Most people don’t realize that it is still legal under federal law to fire someone for being gay, or trans.)
We prepared hearings on ENDA, and, just as importantly, worked to secure a list of key corporate sponsors of the legislation. This was important because, in addition to Republicans claiming ENDA would impinge on religious liberty, they also claimed it was bad for business. So who better than business itself to refute the GOP’s spurious lies.
And refute they did. Among the big-name American companies who came out in support of ENDA by the mid-1990s:
Apple, Microsoft, AT&T, Xerox, Harley Davidson, Honeywell, Merrill Lynch, Dow Jones, RJR Nabisco, Bankers Trust, Bethlehem Steel, Eastman Kodak, Genentech, Nynex, Pacific Gas & Electric, Pacific Telesis, Polaroid, Prudential Insurance, Quaker Oats, and Silicon Graphics.
You have to remember that this was 1995-96. Openly-gay people were banned from military service, and marriage equality was still two decades away. It was so early on in the gay rights battle that it was considered a huge deal that Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton openly-courted the gay vote during the campaign — something unheard of from a major presidential candidate — then Clinton had an openly-gay (and openly-HIV+) Democratic convention speaker, and he appointed openly-gay people to first-ever senior administration positions like assistant secretary and ambassador. (There was even a closeted cabinet appointment, but let’s not go there.)
So the fact that Apple, Microsoft and the rest were willing to be publicly pro-gay, and support gay civil rights legislation, in the early 1990s, was a big deal at the time, even if it seems a no-brainer today.
So the next time you hear someone claim that corporate outrage over Republican attempts to reimpose Jim Crow is something “new” — and therefore, somehow, untoward or illegitimate — remind them that good American companies (as opposed to bad organizations like the US Chamber of Commerce) have been supporting civil rights for decades.
Other Interesting Stuff
57% of Republicans support Biden’s infrastructure plan:
And while Republicans are complaining that parts of Biden’s infrastructure bill aren’t really “infrastructure” — Democrats argue that we need a new updated definition of infrastructure for the 21st century — the American people don’t seem to care. They love the new provisions!
I hate talking about Tucker Carlson, but it’s important, as Fox News — and Republicans more generally — are trying to rewrite the history of the January 6th Insurrection at the US Capitol building, and thus make it possible (and acceptable) for it to happen again. More from HuffPo.
More Americans are calling themselves Democrats, and fewer Republicans, according to Gallup:
In Gallup polling throughout the first quarter of 2021, an average of 49% of U.S. adults identified with the Democratic Party or said they are independents who lean toward the Democratic Party. That compares with 40% who identified as Republicans or Republican leaners. The nine-percentage-point Democratic advantage is the largest Gallup has measured since the fourth quarter of 2012. In recent years, Democratic advantages have typically been between four and six percentage points.
And Ted Cruz hits the supermarket:
If I’m inspired later this week, you’ll be hearing from me again. Enjoy the week.
JOHN
Mitch McConnell loves it when corporations get involved in politics -- as long they stick to donating piles of money to Republicans! And corporations take every possible stance on all sorts of legislation that has nothing to do with their business. MyPillow, anyone? So hypocritical.