Richardcyoung.com

  • Home
  • Debbie Young
  • Jimmy Buffett
  • Key West
  • Your Survival Guy
  • How We Are Different
  • Paris
  • About Us
    • Foundation Principles
    • Contributors
  • Investing
    • You’ve Read The Last Issue of Intelligence Report, Now What?
  • The Swiss Way
  • My Rifles
  • Dividends and Compounding
  • Your Security
  • Dick Young
  • Dick’s R&B Top 100
  • Liberty & Freedom Map
  • Bank Credit & Money
  • Your Survival Guy’s Super States
  • NNT & Cholesterol
  • Your Health
  • Ron Paul
  • US Treasury Yield Curve: My Favorite Investor Tool
  • Anti-Gun Control
  • Anti-Digital Currency
  • Joel Salatin & Alfie Oakes
  • World Gold Mine Production
  • Fidelity & Wellington Since 1971
  • Hillsdale College
  • Babson College
  • Contact Us

Mickey Mouse Runs Amok

April 24, 2023 By Debbie Young

DHS Photo by Benjamin Applebaum

Surprise! Well not really. As Kimberley Strassel writes in the WSJ, Donald Trump’s “reflexive defense” of Disney, is providing the “GOP an overdue opportunity to rethink its relationship with increasingly woke corporate America.”

No surprise that Orange Man dumped on DeSantis. The shock is that the former president’s disdain of his rival has landed him crosswise with the base.

There is a reason Mr. DeSantis is taking on woke Disney—Republican voters love it. So eager was Mr. Trump to join liberals on attack, he put himself on the side of a company that disdains parental rights, axed the words “boys and girls” in park greetings, and just announced it would host the world’s largest LGBTQ+ conference. This is unlikely to sit well with conservative voters, and unlikely to be the only time Mr. Trump puts himself in this spot.

No surprise here, the DeSantis-Disney fracas has inspired other presidential hopefuls to weigh in.

  • Chris Christie explained that Mr. DeSantis’s effort to “punish” the company meant he wasn’t “a conservative.”

  • Mike Pence criticized the bill stripping Disney of local governing authority as “beyond the scope” of what a “limited-government Republican” should do.

Meanwhile, the DeSantis team refers its Disney actions not as retribution, but as a principled attempt to reduce Disney’s “special privilege” and create an “even playing field.”

The GOP and Corporate America 

The GOP has long been the party of free markets, which effectively allies it with “business.” Yet defending that crew becomes harder as corporate America alienates conservatives with political and culture wars. The Chamber of Commerce backs antibusiness House Democrats. Delta slams Georgia’s election reform. Banks divest from fossil fuels. ESG, Bud Light labels, Gillette’s “toxic masculinity” and Nike’s Colin Kaepernick ads and Big tech censorship.

One of the enterprising presidential aspirants might see the benefit of filling that space with the below simple proposition, advises Ms. Strassel:

A Simple Refreshing Stance:

  • The GOP is cutting the corporate cord.

  • The GOP won’t weaponize government against business.

  • The GOP won’t coddle business.

  • The GOP will support broad-based free-market reforms, if primarily to support American’s millions of small businesses.

  • The days of lobbyists and elite corporate welfare—subsidies, tax credits, handouts—are over.

  • Fortune 500 never needed this help—and certainly don’t deserve it now.

“Just think of the taxpayer savings,” offers Ms. Strassel.  Think of the clarity.

What Is the GOP’s Position

The party doesn’t seem capable of drawing a line between its “support for free markets and the ills of corporate welfare and rent seeking,” notes Ms. Strassel.

For every Republican who sensibly votes to lower overall corporate tax rates, there’s another swilling dollars on tax credits and subsidies for favored industries. For every GOP legislature that eases regulatory burdens to create a better business environment, there’s a GOP governor bribing companies to relocate with tax incentive packages.

Republican politicians who feel the need to do more might remember that—as in everything—real America does things better than government. Consumers are already punishing woke corporations—see Bud’s desperate new pro-America ad or Disney’s operating losses. Maybe the party of free markets can trust the free market to work.

Americans salute and celebrate entrepreneurship. What Americans despise is special corporate treatment.

Republicans might try joining them in what is a quite straightforward—and refreshing—position.

Related Posts

  • Turkey Running Amok
  • Your Local Town Politics
  • Need Some Good News?
  • A Look at Who Runs Minneapolis
  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Debbie Young
Debbie Young
Debbie, our chief political writer of Richardcyoung.com, is also our chief domestic affairs writer, a contributing writer on Eastern Europe and Paris and Burgundy, France. She has been associate editor of Dick Young’s investment strategy reports for over five decades. Debbie lives in Key West, Florida, and Newport, Rhode Island, and travels extensively in Paris and Burgundy, France, cooking on her AGA Cooker, driving through Vermont and Maine, and practicing yoga. Debbie has completed the 200-hour Krama Yoga teacher training program taught by Master Instructor Ruslan Kleytman. Debbie is a strong supporting member of the NRA.
Debbie Young
Latest posts by Debbie Young (see all)
  • Prostate Screening, an Important, Imperfect Tool - May 22, 2025
  • Salvaging the Unsalvageable - May 21, 2025
  • A Calculated Decision to Keep Silent - May 20, 2025

Dick Young’s Must Reads

  • Boom or Bust: “What Do You Think of Bitcoin?
  • U.S. Survival AR-7
  • My Key West Garden Office
  • V4 Stands Against North African and Middle Eastern Invasion
  • What’s the Best Survival Currency?
  • The Case for Individual Stocks: Now More than Ever
  • Concentrate on Dividend Record and Compounding
  • You’ve Read The Last Issue of Intelligence Report, Now What?
  • The Three Best Retirement Decisions I Ever Made
  • A NEW CONTRACT WITH AMERICA: Rick Scott Finally Gives the GOP Something to Run On

Compensation was paid to utilize rankings. Click here to read full disclosure.

RSS Youngresearch.com

  • Graduation to Retirement: “I Have a Guy” #7
  • Congratulations, You’re Retired: Now What? Part 6
  • U.S. Billionaires Target Congo’s Cobalt in Bid to Secure Energy Future
  • China Dominates Battery Supply Chain: From Mine to Market
  • Shale Plateau Looms as Global LNG Market Set to Double
  • Congratulations, You Graduated into Retirement. Now What? #5
  • World’s Leading EV Motor Factory to Supply Ferrari and Lamborghini
  • Hackers Target Coinbase: DOJ Opens Investigation into Data Breach
  • Stargate Project Breaks Ground in Texas
  • Retirement #4: How Do You Feel? How Will You Feel?

RSS Yoursurvivalguy.com

  • Graduation to Retirement: “I Have a Guy” #7
  • Your Retirement Life: Top of the Rock
  • Where Do We Stand with Tariffs?
  • Congratulations, You’re Retired: Now What? Part 6
  • Investing Habits of the Fairly Wealthy: #10 Powerball
  • Is America Poised for Next Gen Nuclear Power?
  • Congratulations, You Graduated into Retirement. Now What? #5
  • Big Blue Blob Cities Drive Residents (and Money) Away
  • Don’t Forget the Laffer Curve
  • Retirement #4: How Do You Feel? How Will You Feel?

US Treasury Yield Curve: My Favorite Investor Tool

My Key West Garden Office

Your Retirement Life: Traveling the Efficient Frontier

Live a Long Life

Your Survival Guy’s Mt. Rushmore of Investing Legends

“Then One Day the Grandfather was Gone”

Copyright © 2025 | Terms & Conditions | About Us | Dick Young | Archives