In the weekend edition of his must-read Unleash Prosperity Hotline our friend Stephen
Moore shared this chart from Axios that shows the loss of market cap by the three latest woke companies that chose to infuriate half their customers. (The brilliant marketing execs at Kohls started putting transgender messages on toddler clothing.) In the midst of a market rally, these three firms managed to lose $28 billion in market valuation, noted Mr. Moore.
Javier E. David, writing for Left-leaning news site Axios observed the suddenly soured market fortunes of the three brands are part of a phenomenon that's grown more acute as the electorate becomes increasingly polarized. Politics, wrote Mr. David, is having real economic and financial spillover effects, making it increasingly difficult for investors to price in those risks.
One of the more amusing aspects of the backlash against Target is the Bank of America downgrade, which contributed to shaving $15 billion from Target's market cap. It’s since recovered somewhat, noted Mr. David, and is currently sitting around $63 billion, down from around $74 billion in May.
Bank of America is one of the most “woke” financial institutions out there and has its own problems with consumers boycotting it for its anti-gun policies and for volunteering customer data to the FBI in the wake of the January 6, 2021, Capitol protest. However, it appears that where money is involved woke solidarity only goes so far.
What’s more, the three major brands cited in the Steve Moore – Axios reporting aren’t the only big corporations that took a hit from going woke.
Disney has lost about $96 billion in market capitalization since March 2022 when it began trading barbs with Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis' over Florida's so-called "Don't Say Gay" law and other cultural issues, including adaptations of The Lord of the Rings and The Little Mermaid featuring woke characters. Disney, in addition to its battle with DeSantis, recently missed earnings estimates and it continues to lose subscribers to its streaming business, reported Al Lewis for the Palm Beach, Florida, Messenger.
As Jon Schweppe, Director of Policy and Government Affairs, for the American Principles Project explained in a column for Newsweek, for years, woke corporations have been at the forefront of every new innovation in the LGBTQIA2S+ space, plastering their stores with the latest iterations of the increasingly busy pride flag. But until now, they suffered few or no consequences in the marketplace. Many of these companies even waded into the political process and threatened to economically destroy states that had passed legislation deemed too "extreme" by the alphabet mafia.
The good news is that this opposition to transgender ideology and the whole LGBTQIA2S+ agenda has gone beyond core conservative movement actors and has reached Middle America. As it turns out, normal people don't like the idea of transgender ideology being pushed on their kids while they're out shopping. And they're willing to put their money where their mouths are.
Poll after poll shows that practically the only people in support of this gender ideology are the richest, most educated, and powerful elites. If you have an MBA from Harvard, or publish think pieces for a living, all this adolescent sex-change stuff probably seems normal. If you're a suburban mom, or a domestic light beer drinker, well, probably not so much, concluded Mr. Schweppe.
The good news is that we conservatives have having some gratifying moments of schadenfreude watching the market capitalization of woke corporations tank as they lose market share. The bad news is that these corporations continue to be run by Marxists who don’t really care whether their shareholders win or lose.
As Mr. Scweppe put it so well, the people who run these companies are ideologues, and they care far more about the approval of their fellow zealots than they do about their bottom line. The Dodgers didn't host anti-Christian drag-queen pole-dancers because they thought it would make them money. They did it because they think it will win them moral plaudits from the elites whose blessing they crave.
As we have observed in the past many of America’s major corporations and media companies are no longer profitmaking enterprises operated for the benefit of their shareholders, they are Leftist (actually Marxist) political operations masquerading as businesses. We recommend The Dictatorship of Woke Capital by Stephen Soukup as a good primer on how we got where we are and a clarion call to arms for the Right to fight back.
Joe Biden Pride Month
Rose Montoya topless
Children's Hospital Graduate Medical Education Payment Program
Dr. Meredithe McNamara
Rep. Dan Crenshaw
Anheuser-Busch InBev
transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney
gender dysmorphia
American culture
traditional values
Biden administration transgender regulation
Parental Bill of Rights
Free Speech
Bud Light stock price
Target
Trans clothing for young children
Target stock price
Chip and Joanna Gaines of Magnolia Home
Comments