We’re the captains now, and ‘woke’ corporations should be very afraid

OPINION:

In 2021, I founded an online marketplace, Public Square, to help Americans connect with companies that share their patriotic and conservative beliefs.

I founded this company because of the hard left turn that so many corporations had taken, including tech giants such as Facebook and big retailers such as Target.

These companies had so much power to censor and control that it was hard to envision a better world. But I suspected that if we gave Americans alternatives, they would opt out and fight back.

Boy, was I right.

In the past year, something astonishing has happened. The playing field has changed. Conservatives and independents have stopped hiding their beliefs and playing defense. We’re the captains now, and we’re in control. “Woke” corporations should be very afraid.

It’s important to remember how bad things had gotten to understand how far we’ve come. Just a few years ago, corporations habitually bent the knee to a tiny minority of liberal activists, often their own employees. Effectively, they were letting inmates run the asylum.

These activists realized they could force companies to do what they wanted through protests, boycotts and environmental, social and governance “scorecards” such as the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, which measured how subservient a company was to LGBTQ ideology.

What’s more, the activists realized they had power far beyond their numbers because sympathetic journalists amplified their message.

If you want to know why so many companies started filling your inbox with Pride Month and Black Lives Matter emails roughly eight years ago, that’s why. A few activists with deep pockets, a plan and journalists on speed dial made it happen.

But in the age of X, Truth Social and conservative media, two can play that game. And it turns out there are many more of us than there are of them.

The conservative boycott of Bud Light was the shot heard round the world in our efforts. The boycott dethroned Bud Light from its spot as the top-selling beer in the country (it’s now No. 3, behind Modelo and Michelob Ultra) and cost the company more than $1 billion in lost sales.

The Bud Light boycott got companies’ attention. In boardrooms across the country, the focus shifted. Before, they wanted to know what they could do to appease the left-wing radicals in their midst. Now, they had to worry about becoming “the next Bud Light.”

And Bud Light was just the beginning. Muckraking activists and citizen journalists such as Chris Rufo and Robby Starbuck have shined a spotlight on diversity, equity and inclusion, illegal affirmative action and other left-wing dogma at major corporations.

Companies are scrambling to get out of the spotlight and get right with their customers.

First, it was companies that depended on red state Americans to turn a profit, including Tractor Supply, John Deere and Harley-Davidson. Now, even bigger companies are rushing to get out of the blast radius.

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg is apologizing for censoring the Hunter Biden laptop story and pretending to be a libertarian. Toyota just announced it is withdrawing from the Corporate Equality Index and refocusing its “community activities” from identity politics to STEM education and workforce readiness.

At first glance, this doesn’t seem earthshaking. A car company announcing it will put selling cars ahead of radical activism should be normal, dog-bites-man stuff — the opposite of news. But in a corporate culture steeped in ESG, DEI and other acronym soup, being normal is a revolutionary act. These high-profile defections show that the orthodoxy is breaking. The tables have turned.

But we can’t stop here or get complacent. Now that we have the momentum, we must press our advantage in new areas.

Consider banks, which frequently demean and disadvantage conservatives. Bank of America, for example, searched the bank records of its customers for signs they were “extremist” Trump supporters — and handed that information over to the FBI. The bank has also denied accounts and loans to Immigration and Customs Enforcement contractors and gun-makers — yet has no qualms giving credit cards to illegal immigrants.

Conservatives need to fight back against the big banks’ soft tyranny, just as we’ve done with Anheuser-Busch, Bud Light’s corporate parent, and other “woke” companies. We can pass bills that strip banks of government privileges if they surveil or target their political opponents, as Sen. Mike Lee and other conservative lawmakers have proposed.

We can immediately opt out of the corrupt system and start banking with institutions that align with our values. That’s why my company has just launched Public Square Payments, which gives small businesses a way to collect payments that can’t be canceled, debunked or otherwise disrupted.

This is one small step toward freedom. We’re a long way from disrupting the big banks. But just a few years ago, few would’ve predicted that major corporations would live in fear of us.

How times have changed. We’re the captains now. It’s time to right this ship.

• Michael Seifert is the founder and CEO of Public Square.