“Woke” capitalism has become a serious problem in corporate America.
But Ron DeSantis has refused to back down from liberal strong-arm tactics.
And DeSantis revealed Disney’s CEO was “pressured” to fight him.
Disney continues to be in flux after a historically bad year.
The company had its worst stock performance in decades.
CEO Bob Iger is back in the big chair after allegedly making a move against hand-picked successor Bob Chapek.
During Chapek’s short run as CEO, he was hammered by both the left and the right for his handling of Florida’s Parental Rights in Education legislation, which was smeared by leftists as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
The bill simply blocked public school employees from engaging in classroom discussions about sexuality and gender identity in grades K-3.
Even a majority of Florida Democrats agreed with DeSantis’ piece of legislation.
Nevertheless, “woke” activists within Disney “pressured” Chapek to pick a fight with DeSantis.
In his memoir “The Courage to be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for American Revival,” DeSantis wrote of the ordeal, “As the controversy over the Parental Rights in Education bill was coming to a head, Chapek called me, he did not want Disney to get involved, but he was getting a lot of pressure to weigh in against the bill.”
According to DeSantis, Chapek confessed, “We get pressured all the time…But this time is different. I haven’t seen anything like this before.”
Iger is a liberal who once considered a run for president as a Democrat, but Chapek had more of a libertarian streak.
He was perfectly fine staying out of the controversy, but he caved to pressure from the left.
From The Daily Mail:
“In his account of the exchanges, DeSantis claims in his book that Chapek and Disney ‘ultimately caved to leftist media and activist pressure and pressed the false narrative against the bill’. DeSantis tried to assuage Chapek’s fears about a backlash by stating that Disney should have expected a two-day-long outrage once the bill passed if they decided to stay out of Florida politics – before the dust settled around the matter. Senior leaders at Disney were frustrated by the way Chapek, who was dismissed as Disney CEO in November 2022, handled the education bill.”
Chapek learned the hard way that appeasing the “woke” mob at all only emboldens it.
After staying quiet on the issue initially, Chapek released a statement that read, “It is clear that this is not just an issue about a bill in Florida, but instead yet another challenge to basic human rights. You needed me to be a stronger ally in the fight for equal rights and I let you down. I am sorry.”
The apology essentially doomed his fate.
If Chapek had taken DeSantis’s advice and withstood the “two-day-long outrage,” there’s a chance he could still be CEO of Disney.
DeSantis has created a blueprint for other red-state governors to follow.
Voters want Republican leaders to stand up for their principles.