Disney is accustomed to doing whatever it wants.
That’s why the company flipped out when Ron DeSantis played hardball.
And DeSantis used three words about Disney that got under Democrats’ skin.
“Woke” capitalism has encouraged corporations to use their power to bully politicians.
However, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis chose not to play that game.
The drama began when DeSantis promoted the Parental Rights in Education bill, which was smeared by Democrats as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
Dishonest Democrats acted as if teachers would get thrown in jail for uttering the word “gay.”
In reality, the law only prohibited public school employees from engaging in classroom conversations about sexual orientation and gender identity before 4th grade.
Even a majority of Florida Democrats were in support of the legislation.
But activists inside Disney twisted the arm of former CEO Bob Chapek until he publicly rebuked DeSantis, and the company attempted to undermine the Governor and Florida Republicans.
In light of Disney’s attack, DeSantis removed a special tax privilege that no other business in the state got – afterall, if Disney is going to get heavy-handed about politics, then they shouldn’t receive any special treatment from the government.
The corporate press has attempted to hammer DeSantis for his clash with Disney by suggesting he’s lost the battle with the Mouse House.
But DeSantis said Disney has “not made a peep” since his dust-up with the company.
The governor said during a Newsmax interview, “The big issue with Disney was they exercised a lot of political influence in this town…And they tried to fight us on things like parents’ rights and things that are really important to the people of Florida. We beat them on that. We signed a parents’ rights bill and we’ve expanded protections and we’ve done a lot of stuff to go back and fight woke ideology…Since our skirmish last year, Disney has not been involved in any of those issues…They have not made a peep. That ultimately is the most important – that Disney is not allowed to pervert the system to the detriment of Floridians. So that’s a win for the people of Florida.”
The only language that the Left understands is control.
Conservatives simply want companies to sell their products without being overt with “woke” propaganda.
DeSantis added, “The way I viewed it was we had the skirmish last year, we said ‘no self-government,’ we implemented that consistent with what I said in the campaign…and that’s where it was headed until Disney pulled this maneuver. So forget about all the issues we had with all that, you can’t have a situation where the Legislature has spoken and one company just decides to contract out against the will of the people…At the end of the day they just have to understand — the party is over for them.”
If Disney is smart, the company will focus on improving its stock performance and not picking battles with the governor.