Here’s the official position of the editorial board of the National Review which very much does not want Georgia Republicans to bend to corporate criticism and undo their new voter suppression reforms:
A variety of factors have led to the capture of America’s major corporations by the social-justice-warrior wing of the Democratic Party. Corporate C-suites and legal and human-resources departments are increasingly staffed by products of woke university educations. The “diversity and inclusion” business sector is now itself an $8 billion a year industry. Corporate managers who are not themselves left-wing culture warriors are easily pushed around by a vocal minority of their employees or customers brandishing boycotts, lawsuits, and Twitter mobs. This is especially prevalent in sports, entertainment, and journalism, where prominent employees wield outsized public platforms.
How’s that for erudition?
William F. Buckley had his problems with liberal groupthink at elite universities, but he didn’t speak with this level of broad contempt for higher education.
As far as the magazine’s well-educated editors, they see pressure from elites as undesirable on every issue.
One result is that sports leagues, Hollywood, and big business have gotten into the habit over the past decade of threatening to pull their business from states whose legislatures pass laws that do not meet the approval of the cultural Left.
We have seen this pattern over and over with laws in Indiana, Arizona, North Carolina, South Dakota, and other states that addressed hot-button topics ranging from immigration to religious liberty to transgenderism to same-sex marriage. What has followed, in nearly every case, is that state governors have folded like a cheap suitcase rather than stick up for the democratic right of a free people to pass laws through their elected representatives, chosen in free and fair elections.
It’s true that Buckley opposed the Civil Rights Movement on the theory that white southerners, as the more “advanced race,” had the right to maintain their culture even by undemocratic means. But he eventually joined the 20th Century. Today, his magazine is defending discrimination against gays and demonization of foreigners as “religious liberty.”
They’re unlikely warriors against corporate influence, especially in defense of know-nothing populism. It’s also rich that they insist on a system where the people get to choose their elected representatives in “free and fair” elections ,but they’re doing it in a piece that rationalizes the lack of free and fair elections in Georgia.
So the National Review sounds just like every other Trumpist media organ, demanding that ultra-conservative culture warriors stand tough against scolding from big Georgia employers like Delta Air Lines and Coca-Cola that are unhappy with voter disenfranchisement.
Since NR published this article, Major League Baseball made an announcement:
Major League Baseball announced Friday that it is moving the 2021 All-Star Game out of Atlanta in response to a new Georgia law that has civil rights groups concerned about its potential to restrict voting access for people of color.
The 2021 MLB draft, a new addition to All-Star Game festivities this year, will also be relocated.
In a statement, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said the league is “finalizing a new host city and details about these events will be announced shortly.”
Presumably, this underscores rather than undermines the Editors’ argument, which is that “the best medicine for corporate overreach is for state officials to stand their ground and call the companies’ bluff.” Except, it looks like the Georgia legislature had the losing hand.
It’s not like the state’s Republicans didn’t try to follow NR‘s advice. Before recessing for Easter on Wednesday, the Republican-controlled House retaliated against Delta’s CEO Ed Bastian by eliminating a jet-fuel tax break. They were angry about Bastion’s public criticism of their new election law. But the state Senate took no action, so who was bluffing?
Now they have no All-Star Game, and it’s wholly because the Georgia legislature doesn’t want people who look like they might play for the Atlanta Braves to have ballot access. They want to be able to throw their votes out with phony signature checks. They want the legislature to overrule state election officials and declare the loser the winner of an election if it suits their interests.
The U.S. Congress may pass an election protection bill that overrides Georgia state law, but until then the Republicans can call as many bluffs as they like. They’re not fooling anyone. Today, Major League Baseball pulled the plug. Tomorrow it could be Delta. It’s not a sign of virtue that you support anti-democratic legislation, and the National Review isn’t even convincing as a populist advocate for narrow minded bigotry. They sound ridiculous in this role.
