Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has lost his mind over corporate accountability, corporations speaking out in favor of voting rights in the wake of GQP Jim Crow 2.0 voter suppression laws being enacted by state legislatures around the country based upon Donald Trump’s Big Lie that the election was stolen from him.
McConnell is starting to sound as detached from reality as the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. “Tis but a scratch!”
Republicans and their propaganda media network have been caterwauling about “cancel culture” ever since their failed coup d’etat on January 6 to overthrow American democracy and to install a GQP authoritarian dictatorship under the corrupt and criminal Donald Trump.
147 Republican lawmakers still objected to the election results after the Capitol attack, seeking to “cancel” the votes of 81.2 million American voters (51.3%) who voted for Joe Biden. This was after Donald Trump and his evil henchman, Rudy Giuliani, and his “elite strike force team” of conspiracy mongering attorneys failed to “cancel” millions of voters (mostly Black voters) in swing states that went for Joe Biden in some 64 lawsuits.
Now seditious Republican state legislators are trying to complete the coup d’etat by “canceling” urban and Black voters (who tend to vote for Democrats) in a bid to to rig the next election by enacting onerous Jim Crow 2.0 voter suppression laws to keep them from voting.
Apparently it is perfectly OK for Republicans to try to “cancel” millions of voters who do not agree with their white Christian Nationalism, but anyone who dares to point out that they are racists trying to rig an election to preserve their tyranny of a minority of white Christian Nationalist MAGA/QAnon cult members, they cry foul and throw a fit like a spoiled 3 year old told he can’t have another cookie.
As Jennifer Rubin says, Republicans defend corporate speech — unless it supports voting rights.
Check out this insane shit coming out of the mouth of Mitch McConnell. CNN reports, McConnell warns businesses of ‘serious consequences’ after many condemn Georgia’s restrictive voting law:
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell warned big businesses they would face “serious consequences” after accusing them of employing “economic blackmail” in attempts to influence voting laws as the backlash over Georgia’s elections law that imposes voting restrictions intensifies.
“From election law to environmentalism to radical social agendas to the Second Amendment, parts of the private sector keep dabbling in behaving like a woke parallel government,” the Kentucky Republican said in a statement Monday. “Corporations will invite serious consequences if they become a vehicle for far-left mobs to hijack our country from outside the constitutional order.”
“Businesses must not use economic blackmail to spread disinformation and push bad ideas that citizens reject at the ballot box,” he added.
Who is this guy? Is this the same Mitch McConnell who led the fight to kill McCain-Feingold in Citizens United, arguing that “corporations are people” entitled to spend unlimited amounts of money on political speech? (Apparently only so long as they support Republicans).
Asked about how he squares his support of Citizens United with his call for corporations to stay out of politics in the debate over election laws, McConnell said, “They have a right to participate in the political process. They do.”
What Mitch means is to give Republican campaign organizations contributions:
During his Tuesday event in Louisville, McConnell said he supports CEOs contributing to politicians.
“That’s fine. It’s legal, it’s appropriate. I support that. I’m talking about [First Amendment Free Speech] taking a position on a highly incendiary issue like this and punishing a community or a state [actually Republican politicians] because you don’t like a particular law they passed? I just think it’s stupid,” he said.
Mitch reminds me of this famous quote:
“[S]electing how you do that in a way that doesn’t completely alienate an awful lot of people who depend on your products strikes me as not very smart,” he said, adding earlier, “Republicans drink Coca-Cola too, and we fly, and we like baseball.”
This reflects the conceit of today’s Republicans that only they count, and anyone who does not share their abhorrent views does not count. This is why Donald Trump has alway cited the minority of voters who voted for him, despite having lost the popular vote twice to a majority of millions of votes.
To be clear, Mitch is intimating a MAGA boycott of these companies, the very thing he is decrying from voting rights advocates who threatened to boycott these companies for not speaking out. Mitch’s boycott is more pernicious, because it is an attempt to silence (cancel) free speech.
At an event in his home state Monday, McConnell said he “found it completely discouraging to find a bunch of corporate CEOs getting in the middle of politics.”
“My advice to the corporate CEOs of America is to stay out of politics,” he added.
Does this include your beloved NRA, Mitch?
Republicans are free to vote with their feet just as others do. If you object to a corporation’s politics, don’t buy their products.
Is the “economic blackmail” that Mitch refers to the fact that many corporations cut off campaign donations to Republican organizations after the failed MAGA/QAnon coup d’etat on January 6? That sounds like a patriotic gesture in defense of American democracy from insurrectionists. There are consequences for supporting a seditious insurrection against the U.S. government, Mitch. This isn’t “blackmail,” it’s punishment due to treason.
Or is Mitch referring to the proposed “boycotts” of Georgia and other states for GQP Jim Crow 2.0 voter suppression laws? This is laughable.
Donald Trump encouraged his MAGA cult to boycott the NFL because Colin Kaepernick and others took a knee to object to unarmed Black men being killed by police; he encouraged his MAGA cult to boycott the NBA because the league and players took a “Black Lives Matter” stance; and now he is encouraging his MAGA cult to boycott Major League Baseball because it pulled the All-Star Game from Atlanta over Georgia’s GQP Jim Crow 2.0 voter suppression law. What will Trump do when the PGA gets involved, and he has to boycott golf even at his own golf courses?
Donald Trump, who is addicted to diet Coke, is also encouraging his MAGA cult to boycott Coca-Cola for having spoken out in favor of voting rights. Some silly Republicans have switched to drinking Pepsi, which I find hilarious.
Pepsico continually comes out on top of the Human Rights Campaign’s [LGTBQ] Corporate Equality Index — and they also have frequently opened their wallet with events like sponsoring the HRC Foundation’s Historically Black College and University LGBT Student Leadership Summit. PepsiCo also pledged $400 million to a set of initiatives over five years to “lift up Black communities and increase Black representation at PepsiCo.”
Idiots.
Mitch McConnell really cracked me up with this complete lack of self-awareness:
“Our private sector must stop taking cues from the Outrage-Industrial Complex. Americans do not need or want big business to amplify disinformation or react to every manufactured controversy with frantic left-wing signaling,” McConnell said in his statement, adding that “it’s jaw-dropping to see powerful American institutions not just permit themselves to be bullied, but join in the bullying themselves.”
Dude, you just described the conservative media entertainment complex – they ARE the Outrage-Industrial Complex. White grievance and conservative persecution complex is all that Fox News and hate talk radio does 24 hours a day. Manufacturing controversies, i.e., culture wars (Mr. Potato Head, Dr. Seuss), is its stock in trade. Fox News, Newsmax and OANN and other right-wing outlets regularly amplify Russian Intelligence disinformation. No one spewed more disinformation that Donald Trump himself when he was still on Twitter (which is why his account was taken down).
And what exactly are the “consequences” you threaten, Mitch? Republicans are in the minority in Congress. There is not a single bill McConnell can bring to the floor to retaliate against a corporation that speaks out in favor of voting rights (as the Georgia legislature did against Delta Airlines, Georgia House threatens Delta tax break after CEO slammed new voting restrictions.) McConnell is powerless to retaliate, just like the Black Knight after his arms and legs have been cut off. Mitch is all bluster and empty threats. “Oh, I see, running away. You yellow bastards. Come back here and take what’s coming to you. I’ll bite your legs off!”
And does anyone seriously believe that congressional Republicans will not defend to the death the corporate welfare tax cuts they passed in 2017? A leopard doesn’t change its spots. Supporting wealthy plutocrats and the corporatocracy is the identity of the Republican Party. They have no leverage because no one takes this threat seriously.
UPDATE: Greg Sargent adds, “Mitch McConnell’s threat of “consequences” against corporations defending voting rights is an empty one.” The GOP threats against ‘woke’ corporations are toothless — exactly as intended.
Cliff Albright, the co-founder of voting rights group Black Voters Matter Fund, accused McConnell of “hypocrisy.”
“Mitch McConnell and others have demonstrated their hypocrisy on this issue, whether it’s the issue of not wanting businesses to be involved in politics — which is a first for Mitch McConnell — or whether this is an issue of saying, they don’t like ‘canceling’ stuff, although they are on a regular basis, trying to cancel our voting rights,” Albright told reporters during a virtual news conference Tuesday.
Mitch McConnell’s unhinged attempt to “cancel” any corporate free speech opposed to GQP Jim Crow 2.0 voter suppression laws is now the official GQP line. It is an attempt to bully these corporations back into silence. Republicans ramp up attacks on corporations over Georgia voting law, threaten ‘consequences’.
Check out these responses to Business group pressures AZGOP lawmakers to abandon voter suppression bills:
[GQP Queen of Voter Suppression] Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita, who sponsored SB1485, said the business leaders who signed the GPL statement are misrepresenting what the bill does and “feeding mass hysteria.”
“Their opinion, frankly, is inconsequential to me and has no credibility. I think they need to stay in their lane. I don’t tell them how to run their companies or how to manage their sports monopolies, and I don’t think they should tell me how to … legislate,” the Scottsdale Republican said.
Lady, it is the right of every Arizona citizen to tell you how to legislate, and if you don’t, to kick your sorry ass out of office.
Ugenti-Rita described her bill as “mild in nature and modest in its scope,” and said it mirrors similar laws or active proposals in Democratic California and New Mexico.
Sen. J.D. Mesnard, R-Chandler, also pointed out that GPL and other activists are ignoring much more restrictive voting laws in other states. Mesnard, who sponsored SB1713, questioned why activists and corporate America are ignoring them while attacking states with far more permissive voting systems.
Mesnard described his bill as a way to secure Arizona’s mail-in voting system. Election officials in Arizona and other states say signature verification is an extremely secure system with few instances of fraud, but Mesnard said “many people have concerns” about the system, and that his bill will help alleviate them.
There’s that bullshit excuse again, “many people have concerns,” i.e., MAGA/QAnon cult members who refuse to accept that their “Dear Leader” lost the election. This is not a legitimate basis for enacting Jim Crow 2.0 voter suppression laws.
And Arizona’s Wimpy Kid?
Gov. Doug Ducey has often praised Arizona’s election system as making it “easy to vote and hard to cheat.” Nonetheless, he has said he’s “interested” in possibly signing legislation to restrict voting after Trump’s loss. A spokesman for Ducey would not comment on the GPL letter.
Because cheating is the only way that Republicans can win elections.
Greg Sargent explains The eruption of fake GOP outrage at MLB is actually very clarifying (excerpt):
Here’s a juxtaposition that neatly captures the state of today’s GOP: Republican lawmakers are telling their voters to get angry at corporations that express support for the voting rights of African Americans, while also telling them that raising taxes on corporations to fund infrastructure repair is socialism.
[T]he use of legislative power for punitive purposes is bad enough. But this whole episode is clarifying in other ways. It shows how unrepentant Republicans are over their widespread support for a certain former president’s effort to overturn the 2020 election and how hollow GOP attacks on “woke” corporations truly are.
First, let’s be clear about what Republicans are really saying here. They aren’t simply blasting MLB for moving the game …They are also criticizing the content of MLB’s message about Georgia’s law.
MLB’s statement declared that MLB “fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box.” It underscored its support for “a future in which everyone participates” and for “fair access to voting.”
That Republicans are denouncing this as “wokeness” is clarifying. After all, the law would hamper access to the ballot. As a New York Times analysis shows, it places numerous new limits on vote-by-mail, cuts way back on drop boxes and mobile voting units, and bans third-party groups from sharing food and water with people in voting lines.
As the Times concludes, the law will make “absentee voting harder” and create “restrictions and complications” that will “hamper the right to vote.”
In my view, MLB’s description is absolutely correct, but even those who disagree with it should concede it’s not wildly absurd. It’s plainly within the bounds of reasonable debate. What Republicans are really revealing is that they can’t open the door even a crack to any acknowledgment that such measures might threaten disenfranchising effects.
What’s more, there is zero public rationale for many of them. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger recently declared that Georgia’s elections “have never been more safe or secure.” So why do these things?
Republicans can’t permit an honest debate on that question, either. Instead, they insist they’re necessary to ward off fictitious voter fraud, or to restore people’s “confidence” in the system. Admitting our 2020 elections were a great success would blow up those rationales.
Meanwhile, the larger context matters: All this comes after President Donald Trump tried to strong-arm Georgia election officials to rig the 2020 results, and after Trump endorsed a candidate for Georgia secretary of state whose reason for running is his tacit promise to try to overturn future results that Republicans hate.
And similar efforts are unfolding across the country, often justified with the lie that the election was stolen from Trump.
[Y]ou cannot seriously evaluate the Georgia law without reckoning with its role in the much broader campaign that’s unfolding here, and with all the damage it is doing.
Indeed, that is central to understanding why corporations are reacting this way. Numerous corporations began putting out statements much earlier, to condemn Republican efforts to overturn the election. So this whole display isn’t just about Georgia. It may reflect a broader cultural impulse toward defending democracy and toward the need to denounce serious threats to it.
The point here is … that Republicans are threatening to use legislative power to punish MLB for criticism of the Georgia law that, while perhaps arguable, plainly constitutes a reasonable stance. This comes after Georgia Republicans tried to nix a tax break for Delta Air Lines to punish it for criticizing the law.
That Republicans are denouncing these things as unacceptable corporate wokeness is revealing enough on its own. It’s even more risible that this comes as Republican officials are denouncing efforts to raise corporate tax rates to fund badly needed infrastructure repairs and other job-creating proposals as socialism.
Fascists always yell “socialism” to distract from their fascism.
UPDATE: Here you go, Mitch. Here’s your chance to get “the corporate CEOs of America to stay out of politics.”
Reaffirming that “corporations are not people and money is not speech,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal on Tuesday led 50 members of Congress in introducing a constitutional amendment to end corporate personhood, reverse the Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling, and “put power back into the hands of people.” Jayapal, House Dems Propose Constitutional Amendment to End Corporate Personhood:
The We the People Amendment (pdf) would establish that “the rights extended by the Constitution are the rights of natural persons only” and that “artificial entities, such as corporations, limited liability companies, and other entities… have no rights under this Constitution.”
Furthermore, the proposed amendment states that “the privileges of artificial entities shall be determined by the people through federal, state, or local law.”
“After the most expensive election in American history in which special interests poured millions in dark money into campaigns across this country, the We the People Amendment finally returns the power to the people, ends corporate constitutional rights, reverses Citizens United, and ensures that our democracy is really of the people, by the people—not corporations,” Jayapal (D-Wash.) said Tuesday.
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McConnell’s position is that campaign donations are free speech, but actual speech is not.
Meanwhile meaningful legislation from the anti-regulation crowd includes sticking their nose into municipal plastic bags issues, flag flying in HOAs, punishing doctors for women’s health decisions, and giving themselves backdoor raises. And the gutless Ducey is coming up on the outside in a race for worst governor in America, closing in on Abbott, DeSantis, the lunatic in South Dakota. This year’s legislative session making history for the most lies as a basis for legislation in 100 years. “I have constituents who ‘feel’ unicorns are invading their neighborhoods, so I sponsored legislation outlawing unicorn invasions and directing the attorney General to drop everything and investigate any unicorn sightings immediately.”
Atrios sums it up nicely: https://www.eschatonblog.com/2021/04/your-moment-of-zen.html
McConnell today called voting rights an incendiary issue. What a yutz.