A Crazed GOP Wants to Cancel Baseball, Coke and Big Business
Category: News & Politics
Via: john-russell • 3 years ago • 14 commentsBy: Wajahat Ali (The Daily Beast)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
CANNIBAL CULTURE 
The alleged party of free markets, law enforcement, and free speech doesn't seem to give a damn about anything other than clinging to power.
What's left after the GOP cancels itself? You could get whiplash trying to track conservatives' hypocritical mental gymnastics, but there is a common theme: Conservatives believe in a one-way relationship with America where their terms reign supreme. Our role is to submit or face cancellation.
Incredibly, the party that continually whines about "cancel culture" while at the same time practicing it is now on the verge of self-cancellation after turning on the big business allies it's historically united with to push tax breaks, de-regulation, and the "creative" destruction of the unchecked "free market."
What caused the split was the GOP's latest voter suppression efforts in Georgia, which were so odious that they have done the unthinkable, forcing corporations like Coca-Cola, Delta, and United to publicly condemn them. Even Major League Baseball decided to relocate the All-Star Game from Georgia to Colorado. But the big businesses responding to their presumed interests and customers' desires are being condemned by Republicans as supposed agents of a "woke cancel culture," a made-up supervillain used to scare the conservative base. The Republican Party is even suggesting that the American pastime is, actually, part of a communist plot. If baseball and Coke are out, what's next? Apple pie? (Thankfully, we still have freedom fries.)
Naturally, the Georgia House responded by threatening to "cancel" tax breaks for Delta, the state's largest employer. "You don't feed a dog that bites your hand," said Republican House Speaker David Ralston, rationalizing the retaliation.
"My advice to the corporate CEOs of America is stay out of politics," warned Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. "I found it completely discouraging to find a bunch of corporate CEOs getting in the middle of politics," McConnell said with selective memory, conveniently forgetting conservatives like him helped corporations become people with a First Amendment right to free speech. That was the result of the controversial 5-4 Supreme Court ruling in the historic Citizens United v. Federal Election case that allowed corporations to give unlimited funds to help influence elections. Conservatives like McConnell have no problem with corporations being in the "middle of politics" when it suits him. He took $4.3 million from corporations over the last 5 years to fund his campaigns. Companies have donated at least $50 million since 2015 to lawmakers who have supported voter suppression bills.
In fact, conservatives have long championed the First Amendment and used "free speech" to rally their base and promote their counter-majoritarian agenda. This includes supporting dark money in politics, insisting on the right to spew racism and hate without consequence, and promoting the religious freedoms of white Christians, especially bakers, to discriminate against women and LGBTQ communities. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a dissent this week in which he wanted to regulate Big Tech companies like common carriers. What happened to the "free market?" It seems conservatives don't like Twitter, a private company, deplatforming then-President Trump and his allies for inciting hate. However, like Justice Thomas's wife, they're more than fine supporting a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol which left five people dead and sought to cancel a free and fair election.
As I've written before, cancel culture is the latest manufactured grievance by the right-wing ecosystem to weaponize fake victimhood so they can be cruel without accountability. While the Biden administration was trying to vaccinate Americans and give us a relief package, Republicans were complaining about Dr. Seuss. "Cancel culture" is the "number one issue" and "most dangerous thing" happening today, according to Rep. Jim Jordan. He said this during a devastating pandemic that has killed over half a million people and triggered a crippling recession. I agree with him when it comes to the fragile state of U.S. democracy.
The GOP efforts in Georgia to "cancel" voting rights, mostly of Black voters, is indeed a "most dangerous thing" that is being replicated by conservatives across America to ensure minority rule. Thankfully, the naked discriminatory intent and vulgarity of these measures has inspired national outrage and coordinated, strategic pushback by the majority. This includes putting pressure on corporations, such as Georgia-based Coca-Cola and Delta, to make a bold choice: stand for democracy and the people or continue your lucrative and incestuous partnership with the GOP and be boycotted. Corporations, like people, often follow the money.
Meanwhile, the GOP, which is now an extremist counter-majoritarian and counter-factual force posing as a political party, has given up on corporate money in the course of becoming aggressively stupid and investing everything in "cancel culture" as their absolutist sword to attack Democrats, liberals, and anyone who annoys their cult leader.
In addition to trying to cancel corporations, national sports, voting rights, and the 2020 election, they are also canceling fellow Republicans. This includes the six Republican senators and House Republicans, such as Liz Cheney, who voted to impeach Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection. They've decided to cancel their conservative intellectuals, such as George Will and Bill Kristol, as RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) for criticizing Trump. They've decided to cancel "family values" with their hypocritical defense and support of Trump's sexual indiscretions, and are now trying to say as little as possible about those of Trump minion Matt Gaetz.
The party of "law enforcement" now cancels intelligence agencies and throws them under the bus as members of the "deep state". The party of "national security" is perfectly fine with violent insurrections, white supremacist terror, and vigilantes killing unarmed people at protests.
And now, the party of "the free market" is open to canceling the corporations who give them massive campaign contributions and provide jobs to their voters in Republican majority states. Christians like Jenna Ellis, who fights windmills on Twitter and complains about America cancelling Christianity, are even fine cancelling a literal reverend.
When and where will it end?
As the GOP becomes more extreme and radical, which it will, the absolutist sword of "cancel culture" will inevitably lead to its own cannibalization. For the rest of us, we can only hope it leads to their irrelevance. The terrifying alternative means they will have succeeded in cancelling democracy.
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Moscow Mitch Bitch is now threatening the corporations but it's okay when they give money to the republicans.
I have said it many times before, when they say “cancel culture” they mean having your own opinion. They oppose you, me, corporations, anyone really, having our own opinions and expressing them. In their view the GOP (conservatives generally) should be able to say and do whatever they like without consequence.
What and Democrats don't do the exact same damn thing? Please, this whole entire article could be flipped substituting Democrat for GOP.
How do you think this whole damn thing started. Some moronic Democrats lying about a law for all they were worth hoping to generate this very reaction by those that support them. They are trying to hurt the GOP by hurting everyone in Atlanta, even those that support them.
Now they are hypocritically upset that the GOP is calling for boycotts against the reactionary idiots. Want to check and see which party has lead the call for more boycotts of corporations and businesses? The Democrats still won't hesitate to take money from those very same corporations they are trying to boycott.
Both parties could give a shit about us; they are both more interested in staying in power than anything else.
Just more crazed incoherent liberal drivel
So Moscow Mitch didn't tell corporations to stay out of politics?
I wonder how Rupert Murdoch and the one remaining Koch brother feel about that?
I'm sure McConnell warned them first, and got their permission to pretend to say bad things about them. After all, he just wants corporate people to stay out of politics, he still want corporate money in it.
How little self awareness do liberals have? They’ve spent the last decade plus trying to cancel every person or entity that has opinions that differ from them and are now mad conservatives are pushing back?
How many people and groups and companies has Donald Trump , King of the Republican Party since 2015, tried to cancel ?
Putting aside the misuse of the word cancel, you understand we are coming up on 10 years since Liberals went to war with a dispenser of Chicken sandwiches, right?
It's hilarious to see the same people who brag about boycotting Chick Filet, Hobby Lobby or Home Depot freak out and call people names for using their tactics against other corporations.
This is only a partial list
The Long List of Things President Trump Wants to Boycott (msn.com)
From CNN to Oreo cookies to Scottish whiskey, the MAGA president has urged his supporters to cancel a long list of products or institutions, usually launching his rallying cry on Twitter. On Wednesday, he added to the ever growing list, discouraging Americans from buying Goodyear tires after the company apparently told Kansas employees in a presentation slide that MAGA attire (or any other political causes) were not allowed, while Black Lives Matter and LGBT causes were allowed.
“Don’t buy GOODYEAR TIRES - They announced a BAN ON MAGA HATS. Get better tires for far less!” Trump tweeted Wednesday . He added in parentheses, “This is what the Radical Left Democrats do. Two can play the same game, and we have to start playing it now!”
And while Goodyear issued a vague statement stating that the slide wasn’t “created or distributed by Goodyear corporate, nor was it part of a diversity training class” and insisted the backlash was misguided—Trump already deemed the American company canceled. Never mind the fact the presidential limo, known as The Beast, exclusively uses Goodyear tires .
Along with Goodyear, here are all the places Trump has urged his supporters to boycott, because he said so.
HARLEY-DAVIDSON MOTORCYCLES
In August 2018, Trump encouraged his supporters who own Harley-Davidson motorcycles to boycott the company after it said it would move some of its production overseas to avoid new tariffs imposed by the European Union.
Although the motorcycle brand was one of several companies that vowed to move some of their production overseas after the EU retaliated to Trump’s steep tariffs on steel and aluminum, Trump only hit at Harley-Davidson. The Hill reported that the company suffered a 13 percent sales loss over a two month period—the steepest decrease in eight years—even after Harley-Davidson CEO Matt Levatich reportedly told staff and dealers that motorcycles sold in the U.S. would be built in the states.
APPLE
In February 2016, Trump called for his Twitter followers to “boycott all Apple products” until the company agreed to a government request to unlock the cell phone of the mass shooter involved in the 2015 San Bernardino terrorist attack that killed 14 people.
Apple didn’t fold—but that hasn’t stopped Trump from using an iPhone for years . In 2019, he even complained that his iPhone no longer had a home button.
After investigators tried for months to break into the San Bernardino shooter’s phone, a magistrate ordered Apple to provide software that would allow authorities to unlock it. CEO Tim Cook called the demand “chilling” and said it would “undermine the very freedoms and liberty our government is meant to protect.”
CNN
Trump hasn’t directly called for a CNN boycott in some time—the last being in early 2019 when he tweeted that supporters should stop “using or subscribing” to the news organization’s parent company AT&T because of what he felt was biased coverage. His most ardent fans are likely not tuning in to the liberal-leaning network, but his near-constant disdain is enough for MAGA country to know they should steer clear.
“Great, and we should boycott Fake News CNN. Dealing with them is a total waste of time!” the president tweeted in November 2017 .
And in June 2019, he doubled down. But the New York Times reported in April that he can’t stop hate-watching the network.
MEGYN KELLY’S FOX NEWS SHOW
The president is infamous for attacking news organizations and anchors who are critical of him and his administration. But in March 2016, he took it a step further, proposing a boycott of Megyn Kelly’s Fox News show amid a spat between the then-candidate and the news host. The feud began in 2015 when Kelly asked Trump in a presidential debate about his derogatory comments on women, and Trump later told CNN that “blood was coming out of her eyes, blood coming of her whatever.” Trump eventually admitted to Kelly in an interview that he understood why she asked the “unfair” question.
MACY’S
The Trump family has had a complicated relationship with the department store chain. Macy’s once carried Trump’s clothing line but cut ties in 2015 after he called Mexicans “rapists” in his speech announcing his presidential campaign.
“Macy’s is a company that stands for diversity and inclusion,” the store said at the time. “We are disappointed and distressed by recent remarks about immigrants from Mexico... who have made so many valuable contributions to the success of our nation.”
In response, Trump, naturally, called for a boycott .
He neglected to mention that his daughter Ivanka’s clothing line was sold in Macy’s. It was nearly dropped after a viral online petition .
UNIVISION
At the start of Trump’s 2016 campaign, the New York real estate mogul called for a boycott of the Spanish-language network Univision after it announced it would end its relationship with the Trump Organization over comments the then-candidate made about Mexican immigrants.
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best,” Trump said in June, 2015. “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
Univision also said it would no longer air the Miss USA pageant and would sever ties with the Miss Universe Organization , which Trump was a part-owner of. In response, Trump did what he did best. He tweeted.
ROLLING STONE
In July 2013, Donald Trump urged Americans to “boycott & cancel subscriptions” and cancel their subscriptions to Rolling Stone Magazine after the publication featured Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on its cover. Trump’s outrage matched others’ criticism. The Boston mayor said the story “rewards a terrorist with celebrity treatment ”—prompting the magazine to defend their interview and stress their “commitment to stories and thoughtful coverage.”
HBO
In 2013, HBO talk-show host Bill Maher mocked Trump for spreading baseless conspiracy theories about Barack Obama’s birthplace. He offered to donate $5 million to charity if Trump could produce a birth certificate proving he is not the “spawn of his mother having sex with an orangutan.”
A year later, when Trump was still just a real estate tycoon and reality TV star, he again instructed his millions of followers to boycott HBO for continuing to air Maher’s show Real Time With Bill Maher .
MEXICO
Trump’s relationship with Mexico has long been contentious. Years before he announced his candidacy for president, Trump tweeted that his supporters should “Boycott Mexico” amid news that a Marine reservist was imprisoned for crossing the borders with guns. Sgt. Andrew Paul Tahmooressi was arrested in Tijuana, Mexico on March 32, 2014, after customs agents found three firearms in his truck in violation of the country’s federal gun laws.
Tahmooressi was released in November 2014, after spending seven months in a Mexican jail.
ITALY
In 2011, Trump chimed in to the Amanda Knox scandal. Knox, an American who spent almost four years in an Italian prison for the 2007 murder of her roommate Meredith Kercher, was fighting a prolonged legal battle to return to the U.S.
“Everyone should boycott Italy if Amanda Knox is not freed—she is totally innocent,” Trump tweeted on September 30, 2011. A month later, Knox and her former boyfriend, who was also implicated in the gruesome murder, were found not guilty.
Eight years later, President Trump hosted the President of Italy and his family at a White House functioning celebrating the Italian Republic.
GLENFIDDICH SCOTCH WHISKEY
Trump has a long, contentious, relationship with Glenfiddich whiskey. After the brand selected Michael Forbes, a farmer who refused to sell his land to Trump for a controversial golf course, as “Top Scot” of 2012, Trump immediately hit back.
Business Insider reported that Trump then banned every brand of whiskey sold by Glenfiddich’s parent company, Williams Grant & Sons, from his resorts and hotels. In a statement, the future president said that the whiskey brand was jealous of his own in-house single malt brand and called for a boycott because there was no way the “Top Scot” results were “made by the Scottish people.”
It’s not clear if any Trump-brand restaurants and bars serve Glenfiddich now.
OREOS
No brand is safe in Trump’s world— even milk’s favorite cookie.
Trump declared in 2017 that he would not be “ eating any more Oreos ” after Mondelez International, the parent of Nabisco, which produces Oreos, announced it would move some of its Chicago operations to Mexico.
Trump claimed the move would cost 2,000 American jobs; the actual number was closer to 600. Accuracy aside, the president’s supporters obliged, even joining in on an impassioned chant of “no more Oreos” at the president’s behest during a rally in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The flip flop on corporations from Democrats is something to behold:
Not too long ago, Harry Reid was denouncing the Koch Brothers’ foray into politics as an “un-American” and “evil” attempt to “buy the country.” Amazon is considerably richer than Koch Industries, and Jeff Bezos is considerably richer than the Kochs, and yet it seems distinctly unlikely that he will be denounced by progressives on the floor of the Senate for having had the temerity to wade into questions of spending, taxation, and the appropriate size of the state.
Funny, that.