But the right’s equivalent of Twitter-addicted woke activists wanted a pound of mouse flesh. After all, as National Review’s Charlie Cooke notes, DeSantis had “already won”: Disney took its shot at the Florida parental rights bill, and even though all of its sponsors were recipients of Disney’s political contributions, Disney lost. As problematic as I find this whole spectacle, it would be a good thing if corporations thought twice about picking sides in the culture war.Īs Michael Jordan once said, “Republicans buy sneakers, too.”īut whether the costs outweigh the benefits is unknowable, particularly in a climate in which what constitutes winning is redefined on the fly by Twitter mobs. If corporations will let themselves be bullied out of their lanes by the left, they shouldn’t be surprised if they invite retaliation from the right. I will also concede that DeSantis’ supporters have a point. The view on the right is that DeSantis is a courageous brawler, beating back a behemoth of “woke capitalism.” It’s certainly true that DeSantis comes out a winner on the national stage as he contemplates a presidential run in 2024. Florida’s lieutenant governor even admits that if Disney simply changed its politics, everything could go back to normal. Of course, Orlando International Airport and Daytona International Speedway, with similar exemptions, will be fine, because the libertarian arguments are entirely pretextual. Economically and politically, it was win-win for both Disney and Florida - until last week, when a remarkable number of politicians suddenly embraced a purist libertarian opposition to such public-private partnerships of which there are more than a thousand in Florida. Crafted by Republicans in 1967, the improvement district deal exempted Disney World from zoning and tax laws in exchange for Disney transforming a massive amount of swampy land into the Magic Kingdom and running it without taxpayer money. Ron DeSantis, voted to strip Disney World of its special status under something called the Reedy Creek Improvement District. The very online right was already in a full-blown moral panic about pedophilia, basically holding that anyone who opposed the bill was either a “groomer” or “groomer friendly.” (Once a term for adults who manipulate underage children for sexual abuse, “groomer” suddenly meant dissenters from a moral crusade.)Īgainst the broader backdrop of the populist fatalism of the Trump era, which holds that conservatives “never win” when they play by the rules, it was something of a perfect storm.įlorida Republicans, led by Gov.
Worse, a video of a Disney meeting at which executives boasted of their “not at all secret” agenda to incorporate gay and transgender themes into Disney content was leaked at the worst possible moment. But a pincer movement of internal and external political pressure forced the company to publicly oppose the bill. The Disney Co., under Chief Executive Bob Chapek, tried to stay out of the controversy. We won both arguments at the Supreme Court.įlorida recently passed the Parental Rights in Education bill (tendentiously called the “Don’t Say Gay” law by detractors). Hobby Lobby had a First Amendment right to defy provisions of the Affordable Care Act that violated its religious freedom. Masterpiece Cakeshop, we conservatives contended, had every right not to be compelled to make “gay wedding cakes” because of the owner’s religious beliefs. It’s difficult to exaggerate how committed the right once was to this principle and how much it appalled the left. has every right to argue for its preferred policies - and so does Koch Industries. I thought then, like most conservatives, that the court was correct. Federal Election Commission decision, which ruled that corporations have First Amendment rights. What, pray tell, had roused freedom from its slumber?
“Freedom is awaking from its coma today because of a huge, huge, huge Supreme Court decision - huge,” Rush Limbaugh declared in 2010.
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14, including film and television studios, cable and international TV businesses as it tries to meet competition from technology companies in the entertainment business. Disney is buying a large part of the Murdoch family's 21st Century Fox in a $52.4 billion deal, announced Thursday, Dec. logo appears on a screen above the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.