Money is often the common denominator between big business and politics. The more you give, the greater the access to bending the law in your favor.
Typically such favors come in the form of tax cuts or lax regulations.
It’s why the pharmaceutical industry still calls the shots on the price of drugs and the healthcare industry is allowed to determine charges on things from bedpans to brain scans.
Such influence has grown by untold proportions since 2010 when The Supreme Court anointed corporations as “people,” allowing them to give money hand over fist to candidates and issues that shore up their bottom line.
In recent weeks dozens of corporations have begun to flex that power against what they deem as unethical decisions by lawmakers. The latest dispute is over states’ passage of increased voter restrictions. In Georgia, for example, the new law changes the number of ballot drop boxes in metropolitan Atlanta from 94 to 23 as well as changes the period to request an advanced ballot from 180 days to 78. Volunteers also risk being charged with a misdemeanor if they provide food or water to voters waiting in line, sometimes in the sweltering heat.
Coca-Cola, Delta Air Lines, Facebook, Google, JPMorgan Chase, Home Depot, Ford Motor and dozens of others voiced their displeasure with the Georgia restrictions. The uproar culminated when Major League Baseball moved its All-Star Game from Atlanta to Denver in protest.
The effort to restrict voting is not unique to Georgia. More than 43 state legislatures, including Kansas’, are working to pass similar bills, all under the flawed premise that the 2020 election was “rigged.” Republicans’ overarching goals are to dissuade poor and minority populations — which typically vote Democratic — from making the effort.
On Saturday, more than 100 corporate executives and leaders convened over Zoom to discuss how to effectively weigh in, including withholding campaign contributions and postponing investments in states that approve the controversial measures.
Such news is striking politicians as below-the-belt. And Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will have none of it.
At a recent news conference McConnell warned corporate leaders to “stay out of politics,” or else they will “invite serious consequences.”
Which is really rich.
In the 2020 election cycle, McConnell has been only too happy to accept more than $4.3 million in campaign contributions from corporate bigwigs to precisely do their bidding.
McConnell then adopts a patronizing tone.
“It’s not what you’re designed for,” McConnell advised CEOs. “And don’t be intimidated by the left into taking up causes that put you right in the middle of one of America’s greatest political debates.”
THESE “causes” that McConnell prefers the nation’s business leaders to stay away from are the bedrock of our democracy.
That they feel the need to stand up for democracy is heartening. Glad somebody will.
— Susan Lynn
