ANALYSIS – ‘Go woke, go broke' – the saga of Budweiser and Target's disastrous forays into transgender politics is great for conservatives and all Americans.
It shows how national grassroots pressure can force giant woke companies to lose billions of dollars in a matter of weeks. (RELATED: What's Behind The Efforts Of Bud Light, Target, Disney And Starbucks)
But more importantly, it shows us other ways to fight back. To truly force change we have to effectively leverage these boycotts and go way beyond them.
We need to go after the behemoth investment firms that push and incentivize these corporations to go even more woke.
Elon Musk just hinted at the next battleground – courtrooms.
Referring to Target's decision to sell LGBT-themed items and clothing aimed at families and kids (including ‘onesies' for toddlers and books instructing kids on using transgender pronouns), and the ensuing financial backlash, Musk said Friday that it's just a matter of time before Target faces lawsuits for “destruction of shareholder value.”
“Won't be long before there are class-action lawsuits by shareholders against the company and board of directors for destruction of shareholder value,” he tweeted. (RELATED: Despite Losing Billions, Target Backs Org That Wants To ‘Reclaim' Mount Rushmore)
Musk made the remarks in response to a tweet by conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who posted about JPMorgan downgrading Target's stock after suffering its longest consecutive drop in decades.
Kirk replied by saying that shareholders should organize to get politics out of the “hyperpolitical” corporations of today.
And that is exactly what should be done.
Conservatives should also consider buying just one share of each offending company to give them legal rights as shareholders. And then take the companies to court.
These lawsuits won't just put the offending companies on notice but their huge investment firm backers too.
A big factor encouraging brands to promote transgender ideologies is an attempt to score points on lefty environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards that are being foisted on organizations all over the country. (RELATED: GM Demands ESG Pledge From Suppliers)
And this is a product of leftist political pressures and aggressively activist investment firms.
During an appearance on Fox News, Anson Frericks, an ex-top Anheuser-Busch executive, said that quiet pressure from huge investment firms like New York-based BlackRock and Pennsylvania-based Vanguard is behind many of the controversial decisions by the woke companies they are heavily invested in.
He noted that BlackRock, Vanguard and another firm, State Street, manage about $20 trillion in capital and use their power to promote leftist political agendas.
However, it's also not necessarily coming from the investment firms organically since they too are being pressured by progressive lawmakers overseeing giant government pension funds that the investment firms profit from.
These hyper-politicized monster government pension funds are the ones really calling the shots.
“One of the huge investment firms mentioned earlier manages California's massive pension fund — the country's biggest — and California's leftist politicians have a big say in the corporate governance and politics of the firms the fund invest in,” Frericks noted.
“In California, for example, they recently have mandated those large pension funds [sic] that they divest from things like fossil fuels and oil and gas…”
“But they also tell BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard if they're going to manage their money, they have to commit to things like ESG — diversity, equity, inclusion — and adopt firm-wide commitments that they therefore then force onto all the major companies in corporate America,” he added.
So, we need to find ways to limit the power and influence of these monstrous and highly politicized government pension funds that use taxpayer funds to push radical agendas.
We should also note that this isn't just a conservative issue. Erin Elmore at Turning Point USA, reported The Epoch Times, argued that calls to boycott Target are “not necessarily conservative.”
Instead, she said, “it's common sense. Most parents don't support satanists or little boys wearing girls' bathing suits,” she tweeted on May 28.
This isn't a conservative-liberal thing. It's an American thing.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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Dump stock in BlackRock, Vanguard & State St.
Get active in board meetings
These companies have self-inflicted the damage they are experiencing. They sure don’t know their customer base. I wonder if any of this will come up at stockholder’s meetings.