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Friday, April 08, 2022
Messy, but interesting
Since 2010 the USA works slightly differently than other western democracies. Since the supreme court decision on Citizen United vs. FEC, companies have very few restrictions on using their money for political campaigns. That used to favor Republicans, who used to be the party of business, but now things are turning around, leading to some spectacular GOP vs. company fights. The biggest of which currently is of the Republican governor of Florida, DeSantis, vs. Disney. And it is interesting to see how that fight came this far.
Democracies with only two parties aren't very conductive to compromise. While many other democracies have situations where the largest party still doesn't have an absolute majority, and needs to form coalitions and do compromises to govern, in a two-party system the party that is ahead automatically has the absolute majority. With the majority party having no reason to compromise, that can put the minority party in a situation where they simply can't achieve anything by normal political means. If the Republican party in Florida decides on an anti-gay education bill, there isn't much the Democrats can do.
However, if you look at demographics, there tends to be a correlation between older people being more conservative, and younger people more progressive. That is especially important in Florida, which has 21% of its population of age 65+, while California only has 15%, and Texas 13%. So the working age population is more progressive than the voting population. It is easy to see how at a company like Disney in Florida, progressives might have a solid majority *inside the company*. And because these progressives can't achieve much through other political channels, but Citizens United makes it possible for Disney to wield a large amount of political power, the most viable way of progressive employees of Disney to wield political power is to pressure their own management to act politically.
Besides the progressive employees, companies also tend to market to customers primarily in the 18 to 34 age group, which again is more progressive than the voting population. Have you seen much marketing for the great senior citizen experience at Disney World? Instead, what you see is that even companies with conservative managers in conservative states make an effort to look progressive, up to a recent wave of name changes of brands away from racial and cultural stereotypes of the past.
In the past, companies had a long history of playing both sides. If the goal of political donations is ultimately political favors that bring financial benefits to your company, then you need to give money to different parties at different levels of government; for example the mayor of Orlando is a Democrat, even if the governor of Florida is Republican. But the extreme political polarization of US politics might put an end to the possibility of playing both sides. Disney initially tried to remain non-committal about the education bill proposed by DeSantis, until their employees walked out and Disney was forced to choose a side.
Of course the Republican party liked the Citizens United ruling only as long as that meant money flowing their way. And companies liked the Republicans only as long as they pursued business-friendly policies. When companies decide that their is no profit in them financially supporting Republican policies that don't help businesses, and instead companies are looking out more to keep their progressive employees and customers happy, then the political impact of Citizens United might swing leftwards. And the GOP isn't happy about that. But of course Republican politicians with authoritarian streaks lashing out with punitive measures against "woke" companies is only likely to further sour the relationship between the party and business. This is going to be messy, but interesting.
- posted by Tobold @ 9:50 AM Permanent Link
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I don't see much correlation what you say and your linked graph
Just on the examples you give, california votes democrat, texas republican. Florida skews republican. Utah goes republican with lowest 65+ and Maine does the reverse.
I don't disagree with the premise, but I do not see how the link shows correlation.
Just on the examples you give, california votes democrat, texas republican. Florida skews republican. Utah goes republican with lowest 65+ and Maine does the reverse.
I don't disagree with the premise, but I do not see how the link shows correlation.
It seems like democracy is starting to fail in the US - I think it is more about a system that cannot function well in the modern world because of tensions between state and federal power, and inability to amend the constitution except by electing judges to change what it is said to mean. Let's hope our grandchildren in the European Union are not in the same place.
Democrats screaming about Citizens United is like them screaming about the filibuster - it plays well for them among their own voters, and they have plenty of friendly media to spin it their way - but they use it as much as anyone.
Democrats screaming about Citizens United is like them screaming about the filibuster - it plays well for them among their own voters, and they have plenty of friendly media to spin it their way - but they use it as much as anyone.
Sorry if I wasn't clear. I didn't want to imply that states with a larger elderly population are necessarily Republican. I just wanted to point out that if you take a state's "voting population" and the same state's "working population", you get a different behavior, and the higher the percentage of elderly people is, the bigger the difference will be.
The thing is that yes, California votes Democrat, and Texas Republican. But that doesn't mean that there are no Republicans in California or no Democrats in Texas. If you look closer at each state, you see a patchwork of red and blue everywhere, usually redder in more rural areas, and bluer in more urban ones.
The point of my post is that even if Florida skews Republican, it isn't surprising that "Disney in Florida" skews Democrat. And that if progressives can't wield power in a state directly, they can try to wield it indirectly by badgering the company they work for.
The thing is that yes, California votes Democrat, and Texas Republican. But that doesn't mean that there are no Republicans in California or no Democrats in Texas. If you look closer at each state, you see a patchwork of red and blue everywhere, usually redder in more rural areas, and bluer in more urban ones.
The point of my post is that even if Florida skews Republican, it isn't surprising that "Disney in Florida" skews Democrat. And that if progressives can't wield power in a state directly, they can try to wield it indirectly by badgering the company they work for.
Republicans have disliked Disney --the corporation-- for quite a long time. That's been the case ever since before Disney began allowing same sex partners to be on their employees' insurance, but for what the majority of people has been a non-starter has basically caused cultural conservatives to blow a gasket. But it isn't the cultural conservatives that dove Citizens' United, but corporations who what no regulation whatsoever, those with a Libertarian bent. Such as Koch Industries, which is presently notable for refusing to pull operations out of Russia.
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