Two sides of the same coin
There can be no greater separation between whatever we call progressives and whatever we call conservatives than the feelings about billion dollar corporations. Conservatives fought to give those corporations rights to free speech where progressives normally view those corporations with some level of skepticism or scorn. At the very least, there is a constant battle to get those corporations to pay their fair share in taxes.
This is why the battle over Disney is such a unique battle. No single quote has had a greater impact on the past forty years of politics than Ronald Reagan’s quote from his first inaugural address. “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.” No other line quite captures the sentiment of conservatism. That quote gets magnified when we deal with corporations the size of Disney.
Disney has been given all kinds of perks and favors over the years. The idea is that Disney creates more for the economy and stimulates more growth than the government ever could. So, the best thing a government can do is take a back seat and let Disney do their thing. Naturally, we will ignore that while Disney is a fine place to visit (our family has been there three times in the past six years) and they have stimulated the economy in general, as an employer their spoils aren’t exactly distributed equitably.
Such is the nature of these things. A good progressive will take the Reagan quote and insert the word corporations for the word government. It’s not that we don’t want them to exist. It’s that we want them to be tempered and regulated so that their excesses can be reined in. We want workers treated fairly. We want consumers to be protected. We want the effects of the greed that happens naturally to be limited.
What gets lost for the current crop of conservatives is that corporations have no moral compass. They can’t. As much as Citizens United wants us to believe that they are people we know they are not. They are about pure profit motive. They want to sell my daughter a “pride donut” while also seemingly catering to “family values.” They want all of our money.
So, I’m not sure what Desantis and the other movement conservatives were thinking when they came out against LGTBQ+ individuals. When they passed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill what exactly did they think would happen? Did they think Disney would purposely cut off a sizable portion of it’s customer base? Disney has made its billions by being all things to all people. It can appear to be wholesome and family friendly and also friendly to people of all lifestyle choices. They’ve made their way through that mine field. They are incredibly successful because they have done this.
So, now conservatives are going against their core beliefs. They are punishing a corporation for taking a stand. It puts progressives into the uncomfortable position of supporting a corporation like Disney. In the end, corporations are the same. They are all things to all people. They are signs of the ultimate greed and avarice driving a wedge through our society and environment. They are welcoming to all people because all currency spends the same no matter who it comes from. Corporations can and will be both. They can because they can’t afford not to be. At least the successful ones like Disney can’t.
We should remember that Disney is basically running a company town in Florida, so this whole thing is rather reminiscent of a Gilded Age brouhaha between, say, Andrew Carnegie and the state of Pennsylvania.
1Any government, on the whole, must be more powerful in its governance than its most powerful constituent — to avoid corruption. A corrupt government may be voted out of office. A corrupt enterprise will only reward government in relation to the corruption exercised.
In the final analysis, enterprise is the problem and government is the solution. Ronnie ray-gun was the first of our modern serial liars to evolve from the former Republican Party.
Republicans used to stand for parity, now they lie for party.
2Per the Reagan quote, why isn’t/hasn’t this specifically been referenced and thrown back into the repubs face every time up to today especially when the malfeasance of that admin started to become apparent?
3If it has been done, why am I not recalling those occasions with my being reasonably astute, aware, over those years?
There is no dialogue with an ideologue.
Why not adopt some of the repubs marketing tactics without the lying part and keep hammering for that audience while maintaining their regular approach to the more thoughtful citizens?
Always thought Ronnie Ray-gun was an actor aiuditioning for hte part of a president in a three hour film. He was an racist as hell and brainless in general.
4My son was born in 1981. When I drove to the hospital to take him and his mother home, I drove a car which used leaded gas. I was helping to poison him (and everybody else around) when he was only three days old.
The U.S. Congress adopted the Clean Air Act in 1970 and created the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Clean Air Act set air quality standards that included a timetable for phasing out leaded gasoline.
By January 1, 1996, leaded gasoline for cars was completely banned in the United States.
In 2011 my son went to the hospital to take my granddaughter home. He drove a pickup with far less overall emissions and no lead at all than the car I had used to take him home from the hospital.
It wasn’t the corporations that did this. Not the car manufacturers, not the oil refineries. The government required the corporations to change.
And I am dammed glad the government did that.
Government regulation of corporations saves lives.
5A lot of good points above. In my opinion, the case of Disneyland vs desantisland boils down to an entity disagreeing with the authoritarian. Can’t do that in floriduh anymore. Be like someone in Russia disagreeing with putin.
6Scary thought that someone like desantis could be president. Someone even more putrid than the orange one.
As a gay man, I do have an issue with this concept that being pro-LGBTQ isn’t “family friendly”. I would think acceptance of LGBTQ persons in any family would be “family friendly”.
7You are correct TJ. I should have put family friendly in air quotes as you did. Again, we are talking about the difference between what corporations would view as family friendly and what actually is family friendly.
8I’ll believe a corporation is a person when a corporation gets thrown in jail for nonpayment of taxes. Hell, I’ll believe a corporation is a person when a corporation gets thrown in jail for violating any law at all.
9I understand the idea that progressives should be very sceptical of multi-billion dollar corporations.
On the other hand, I am far more concerned with using government for persecution.
The Reedy Creek Improvement District is more than “a company town,” as there are actual towns within the district.
Disney’s whole pitch is selling “the happiest place on Earth.” Disney pays for all trash pickup, water supply, sewage, potholes, &c. You won’t see a single pothole within the district, nor any graffiti. That sort of thing destroys the idea of the “happiest place on Earth.”
If the district is eliminated, this does more than throw millions of dollars of infrastructure maintenance on Osceola and Orange County (both blue counties) taxpayers. It sends a very clear message that agreements by businesses with the State of Florida cannot be trusted.
Florida Republicans are willing to destroy one of the pillars of their economy (tourism) just to grasp a bit more power. Grasping more power is the central tenet of conservatism, ever since Edmond Burke defined conservatism.
Progressivism has always been about lifting others up, that is, distributing power. Just because Disney is a multi-billion dollar corporation does not mean progressives should stand by while Republicans abuse power because Disney spoke up against their repugnant bill. All abuse of power should be opposed, every time conservatism rears its ugly head.
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