In response to MLB pulling the 2021 All-Star Game out of Atlanta and the number of corporations issuing public statements against Georgia's voter suppression law, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told corporations to "stay out of politics." He also indicated corporations would face "serious consequences" for expressing views which contradict his own. What those serious consequences were he did not say.
At best it was a peculiar thing for McConnell given the millions of dollars he has raised in corporate political donations and the more than $200,000 he directly raised from top CEOs in his re-election campaign last year.
So McConnell clarified matters and said he had no problem with corporations giving him money. McConnell objects to corporations "taking a position on a highly incendiary issue like this and punishing a community or a state, because you don't like a particular law that passed, I just think it's stupid." The Kentucky Senator specifically wants corporations not to involve themselves on matters such as gun control or environmental issues.
Now there is a segment on the Left (i.e. Bernie Sanders, AOC, etc.) which would prefer that corporations stay out of politics. But last I checked we have a First Amendment. Therefore corporations, right or wrong, do not require McConnell's permission to take positions on the issue of the day.
Frankly, if there is anyone I wish would stay out of the politics it would be Mitch McConnell. I believe he has done more harm than good to this country. But the people of Kentucky freely and fairly chose him just as the people of Georgia freely and fairly chose Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock and the people of America freely and fairly chose Joe Biden. McConnell is entitled to his views. But so too is Corporate America.
As such Corporate America would be wise to ignore McConnell and keep on speaking out on public matters. The more it annoys McConnell the better.
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