DeSantis is right to oppose government subsidies for Disney: Carney

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis can turn his feud with Disney into a wider platform for tackling corporate welfare. — Image credit: Getty Images

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis‘ feud with Disney shows no signs of slowing down. They’ve been locking horns ever since the entertainment company publicly opposed a state law banning classroom discussion of sexuality and gender identity in younger school grades. DeSantis said that opposition went too far.

After Disney canceled a $1 billion development project in central Florida, DeSantis says there’s “zero” chance he will back down.

Straight Arrow News contributor Timothy Carney thinks the newest Republican presidential contender should use his beef with Disney to send a broader message that government favors for businesses are never acceptable.

It’s a twisting tale of corporate welfare, culture war and political power. An entertaining place to begin is back in 2010, when Democrats cried that corporate political speech was a dire threat to democracy. In the case Citizens United [v. Federal Election Commission], the Supreme Court struck down federal laws that limited corporations’ ability to participate in the political debate. This victory for free speech was portrayed as a cynical ploy by Republicans who everyone knows are more in line with corporate America, right? Wrong. Big business isn’t conservative. The biggest businesses don’t want free enterprise, and they certainly don’t like traditional morality. Disney’s recent battles show this clearly.

In the past few years, teachers’ unions and liberal activists have succeeded at changing the way public schools teach and deal with sex, gender, and sexuality. One result is a flood of inappropriate material being taught to young kids. Another is relentless activism by teachers who advanced their own radical ideas about sex and gender. Often the teachers and activists are explicit that their goal is to tear children away from the morality and worldview of their parents.

To combat this campaign, DeSantis and the Republican legislature passed a new law prohibiting culture war proselytizing in the classroom, and barring age-inappropriate sex ed teaching. The media and the activist community disliked this law and spoke out against it. Any corporation that didn’t instantly join the Left was warned that it would suffer if it didn’t speak up. Disney responded to this pressure campaign and came out against the sex ed bill. That action caused Republicans, including DeSantis, to take away some of Disney’s more outrageous corporate welfare.

Ron DeSantis is running for president and his number one opponent right now seems to be the Walt Disney Company. Disney recently announced that it was canceling a billion dollar corporate development in Florida. Democrats in the news media celebrated this as a salvo in the war between Mickey Mouse and the governor whom they accuse of retaliating against Disney, simply because they oppose him politically. It’s a twisting tale of corporate welfare, culture, war and political power. An entertaining place to begin is back in 2010, when Democrats cried that corporate political speech was a dire threat to democracy. In the case Citizens United, the Supreme Court struck down federal laws that limited Corporation’s ability to participate in the political debate. This victory for free speech was portrayed as a cynical ploy by Republicans who everyone knows are more in line with corporate America right? Wrong. Big business isn’t conservative. The biggest businesses don’t want free enterprise, and they certainly don’t like traditional morality. Disney’s recent battles show this clearly. In the past few years, teachers unions and liberal activists has succeeded at changing the way public schools teach and deal with sex, gender, and sexuality. One result is a flood of inappropriate material being taught to young kids. Another is relentless activism by teachers who advanced their own radical ideas about sex and gender. Often the teachers and activists are explicit that their goal is to tear children away from the morality and worldview of their parents. To combat this campaign, DeSantis in the Republican legislature, passed a new law prohibiting culture war proselytizing in the classroom, and barring age inappropriate sex ed teaching. The media and the activist community disliked this law and spoke out against it. Any corporation that didn’t instantly join the left was warned that it would suffer if it didn’t speak up. Disney responded to this pressure campaign and came out against the sex ed bill. That action caused Republicans, including DeSantis to take away some of Disney’s more outrageous corporate welfare. Amazingly, the state of Florida had given Disney its own government called the Reedy Creek Improvement District. While hundreds of companies operated within this district. The Disney controlled government gave a Disney owned company a monopoly on providing all sorts of services. It’s crony capitalism in its purest form. So DeSantis was correct to try and strip these powers from Disney. And Disney was wrong to oppose the sex ed bill. But once you combine those two facts, the situation gets murkier was DeSantis fine with Disney’s corporate welfare right up until Disney oppose him politically. Why didn’t he take action before then? Is the governor trying to send a chilling message to other big businesses? Stay quiet if you want to keep your special favors. Florida Republicans could clear this up by launching a full scale assault on corporate welfare in their state and DeSantis could make war on corporate welfare a centerpiece of his presidential campaign. He needs to make it explicit that he opposes government favors for all businesses, not just those that get in his way.