May 18, 2023 03:55 PM UTC

Republicans Focus More Attention on Silly Culture War Battles

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: As Lauren Boebert likes to say, “When you go woke, you go broke.” She’s not quite accurate there. As it turns out, when you get all riled up about woke nonsense…then you go broke.

From The Associated Press:

The Walt Disney Co. announced Thursday that it was scrapping plans to build a new campus in central Florida and relocate 2,000 employees from Southern California to work in digital technology, finance and product development.

The decision follows a year of attacks from Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Legislature because the company opposed a state law that bans classroom lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity in early grades. Disney filed a First Amendment lawsuit against DeSantis and other officials last month.

Disney had planned to build the campus about 20 miles (30 kilometers) from the giant Walt Disney World theme park resort, but Josh D’Amaro, chairman of the parks, experiences and products division, said in a memo to employees that “new leadership and changing business conditions” prompted the company to abandon those plans.

Hope your silly spat was worth losing a $1 BILLION development project, Gov. Ron DeSantis.

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Last week in this space we marveled at the inexplicable decision by Congressperson Lauren Boebert (R-ifle) to immerse herself in a no-win battle against the Disney Corporation on account of “wokeness” or whatever.

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz apparently felt left out in the anti-woke crusades in the lower chamber, so he’s making up for lost time:

As Fox [urp] News reports:

Sen. Ted Cruz is putting pressure on the beer industry’s regulatory body, demanding an investigation of Bud Light’s transgender ad campaign with activist Dylan Mulvaney over concerns the company violated rules on marketing to individuals under the legal drinking age.

“A massive percentage of Dylan Mulvaney’s audience are kids. And Budweiser was trying, I believe, with this ill-fated marketing attempt to target teenagers,” Cruz, R-Texas, said on “Fox & Friends” Thursday.

In a joint effort with Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., the Texas senator sent a letter to the Beer Institute Chairman Brandon Whitworth who also serves as the CEO of Anheuser-Busch, the parent company of Bud Light. The letter called on the Beer Institute’s Code Compliance Review Board to investigate the beer brand’s controversial ad campaign with Dylan Mulvaney.

First of all…there’s something called the “Beer Institute’s Code Compliance Review Board.” Who knew?

But more importantly, why are actual United States Senators spending one iota of their time focusing on this ridiculous manufactured grievance? The United States is less than a week away from a potential catastrophic default on its debts, but Cruz is worried about transgender people drinking Bud Light. 

In case you missed this dumb story, Republicans and other right-wingers who are scared of transgender people lost their collective minds last month when Bud Light beer was featured in a social media post by the popular online “influencer” Dylan Mulvaney. Republican politicians, including Boebert, immediately called for a boycott of Bud Light producer Anheuser-Busch for reasons that were never articulated beyond their thinly-veiled hatred of LGBTQ people.

Once upon a time, the Republican Party stood up to defend corporations against government interference. But Republican politicians will now toss even free-market capitalism under the bus if it will prevent the MAGA base from saying mean things about them.

Meanwhile, as USA Today reports, Anheuser-Busch is learning that reacting to conservative cupcakes just ends up hurting them more in the end:

In a May 9 letter shared exclusively with USA TODAY, the Human Rights Campaign informed the Bud Light maker that it has suspended its Corporate Equality Index score – a tool that scores companies on their policies for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer employees.

Companies that receive a 100 score on the index’s four criteria – protections from workplace discrimination, inclusive benefits, inclusive culture inside and outside the workplace and responsible citizenship – receive a “Best Places to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality” seal of approval from the Human Rights Campaign.

Disney Corporation, BTW, recently reported higher than expected quarterly earnings — including “significant growth at its theme parks.”