“Big corporations [are] becoming the woke enforcers of the Democratic Party… We’re seeing multiple ceos making the decision to weigh in on political matters and to use their corporate power to punish anyone who doesn’t agree with the Democrats’ radical plans…” — Sen. Ted Cruz (R, TX), Fox News, 4/15/21

“Democrats have increasingly emerged as the party of upscale suburbs, of Silicon Valley and Hollywood and Wall Street, of the owners of capital and the [investment-class] professionals who service them. The gop, meanwhile, is trending toward a multiracial working-class party, preferred by those who generally make their living by toil.” — Sohrab Ahmari, The New York Post, 1/12/21

You’ve heard it all your life: “Democrats are the party of the little guy.” Well, that’s always been bogus, but nowadays it’s 180 degrees out of phase. Democrats are the party of the rich, the party of multinational corporations, Big Money, Big Donors, Big Control, and Big Corruption. The little guy is sadly outta luck, unless he’s an illegal alien.

As the Bible says, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also,” and Democrat hearts are glued to where the mega-donations are — and it ain’t John and Jane Q. Public. Nope, it’s not Main Street; it’s Wall Street.

Buying Biden. In fact, Wall Street spent over $74 million to back Joe Biden’s White House run, reports cnbc — more than Barack Obama received in his two Presidential races combined. Trump got a mere $18 mil this time (his haul was similar in 2016: $20 million).

There’s been a tectonic shift, a political realignment, with the clichéd “rich Republican businessman” replaced by a rich woke ceo in a Democrat donkey suit. The corporate cash didn’t just go to the top of the ticket. According to cnbc, in 2016, the disbursement was balanced: 50 percent of Wall Street money went to Republicans while 49 percent went to Democrats. But “the 2020 cycle saw over $625 million [come] from people working in the securities and investment industry, between congressional and Presidential contests … Democrats received 63 percent of the money, and 37 percent went toward Republicans.” A statistic you will never hear from the drive-by media.

Especially generous were the tech giants. According to “Big Tech and ceos Poured Millions into the Election,” at Observer.com, Alphabet (Google’s parent company) contributed $21 million in 2020; 80 percent to Democrats, 7 percent to Republicans. Microsoft gave $17 million; three-quarters to Democrats, 14 percent to Republicans. Amazon gave $8.9 million; also just 14 percent went to Republicans. Facebook’s total contribution (not including the $400 million Mark Zuckerberg bucks that gamed state elections) was $6 million, nearly 80 percent of which went to Democrats and only 10 percent to Republicans). Apple gave $5.7 million, 80 percent to Democrats, a paltry 4.3 percent to Republicans. Netflix contributed $5.42 million to Democrat super-pacs. Twitter gave $689,000 to Joe Biden.

Tech Support. More than money flowed from the tech giants to Democrats. Coincidentally, so did favors. Reports Fortune: “In … corporate America, there was … decisive action to limit Trump’s ability to communicate with supporters… Twitter banned Trump permanently, Facebook suspended him, and Shopify stopped providing the tech to power his e-commerce sites. As for conservative social network Parler, Apple and Google removed it from their app stores … while Amazon stopped providing cloud support…” At the same time, multiple companies — Morgan Stanley, Marriott International, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Dow, American Express — pulled the plug on all donations to Republicans in Congress who opposed the Electoral College certification of Biden.

Corporations are Democrat foot soldiers now. See “Is Big Business the Democrats’ New Best Friend?” in the 4/6/21 The New York Times:

Dozens of companies, from Coca-Cola to Delta to Microsoft, have publicly denounced Georgia’s [election] law and similar efforts that Republicans are proposing in more than 40 states… It might seem … strange to see Democrats teaming up with big business. But … [b]ig business has become one of the most powerful forces in the country to advance [liberal Democrat] social equity issues. Companies from Netflix to Citigroup got behind Black Lives Matter last summer; boycotts, including by the National Basketball Association’s All-Star Game, pushed North Carolina to repeal a law preventing transgender people from using restrooms that match their gender identity; and now, companies are speaking out against [election laws].

Windfall Profits. And the favors are being repaid. In Democrat political corporatism, one hand washes the other. As abcNews reported in “The Winners in a Pandemic Economy: Big Tech and Lockdown Essentials Soar”:

It has been a bleak year for many businesses in the U.S., and experts warn that up to a third of all American small businesses could close for good during the pandemic. Meanwhile … [t]he tech giants — Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Netflix — have seen significant gains… Amazon reported that net sales increased by a whopping 40 percent in the second quarter of its fiscal year … totaling $88.9 billion… Amazon’s stock has soared by approximately 97 percent… Apple recently made headlines for hitting $2 trillion in market cap, making it the first publicly traded U.S. company to do so. In the third quarter of its fiscal year, the company reported revenues of $59.7 billion. Apple’s shares have risen by 124 percent since bottoming out in March [2020]. Facebook saw its daily active users spike in the second quarter of 2020, which the company said in a statement reflects “increased engagement as people around the world sheltered in place…” The company also reported a higher-than-expected $18.7 billion in revenue for the quarter. The company’s stock has skyrocketed some 85 percent…

A nifty profit-taking scheme, if you can get Democrat politicians to keep things locked down so your small-business competition literally dies. In the Demo-corporate symbiosis, bought Democrat politicians stay bought. Because they know the mountains of cash they bestow on their fellow-travelers will come right back to them, in the form of campaign donations. It’s the cycle of Democrat life.

Ready to Deploy. And the corporations are standing by, waiting for the next opportunity for left-wing political activism, in service to the cause. Stephen R. Soukup, author of the recent book, The Dictatorship of Woke Capital: How Political Correctness Captured Big Business, explains that this newly politically weaponized corporate behavior has emerged from a subtle change in their operating model. It’s now “stakeholder capitalism.” As opposed to shareholders, “stakeholders” don’t have an economic interest in the business or, primarily, a financial motivation. They are left-wing social justice warriors determined to use “the immense power these companies can wield” to reshape society and government. Yes, they intend to bring revolution.

“Woke capitalism,” Soukup told The Daily Signal on 4/5/21, “is a top-down, anti-democratic movement on the part of some of the biggest and most important names in American business to change the way business functions, to change the definition of capitalism, and to change the very relationship between the citizen and the state permanently.”

Woke Religion. And that’s the entire goal. These people are so convinced of their own righteousness and the rightness of their leftism that it’s basically a religious undertaking to them. Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Dean of the Yale School of Management, bragged in The Wall Street Journal that he organized over a hundred corporate leaders into anti-Republican protests of state election laws, gun rights, immigration, global warming, social justice, and transgender “bathroom bills.” And here’s his article title: “ceos Lead America’s New Great Awakening: Their political activism on behalf of voting rights will help bring about a spiritual revival.”

Seriously. He really believes “American religious history produced four Great Awakenings — and now American business is sparking a fifth spiritual awakening.”

I contacted 120 ceos to meet … for a rapid-response crisis caucus. Ninety of them called in — from finance to pharmaceuticals, transportation to technology, manufacturing to healthcare, retail to professional services. Despite favoring a range of solutions, their spirit was defiant against politicians trying to muzzle them. They rallied to support one another, especially those with the courage to have stood up first, as well as to fortify their roles in ensuring the harmonious society and functioning democracy that vibrant markets need.

Gak! We got your harmonious society right here.

The general public hates this kind of politically correct drivel — and has no use for corporate wokeism. A recent Marist Poll asked, “Do you support or oppose American companies using their public role, position, or events to influence political, cultural, or social change?” Only 36 percent said they supported this crap. A whopping 57 percent opposed it.

Wherever this bunch wants to take us, it’s not where the American people want to go. The vast majority of the country are where the maga Republicans are on policy and vision. As John Nolte noted at Breitbart:

When I say the “Republican Party,” I’m not talking about Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell. I’m talking about us, we the people, those who call themselves Republicans, but only because that was the party Trump chose to run with. In just five years, the Republican Party had become the party of the working class, of backing private [sector] union members. The party fighting for civil liberties and against the suicide of free trade … [and] illegal immigration. We’re the ones opposing endless wars, the corporatizing of America, Big Mergers, Big Consolidation, the Military Industrial Complex, the Prison Industrial Complex… [S]ome 50 to 75 million of us have now seen the light on all or most of these issues, and that’s Trump’s true legacy.

Yes, Trump transformed the Republican Party into the true party of the people. Now the Democrats are the party of the idle rich, while Republicans really are the party of the little guy.

Cartoon ©2021 by permission of Pat Bagley/CagleCartoons.com