Pirate's Cove

Remember last week when Barack Obama was calling out cancel culture, about people being too Woke? The Star Ledger Editorial Board doesn’t

Are you supporting Trump with that underwear purchase? | Editorial

What is Netflix doing with its money – covertly supporting Donald Trump?

We have the same question about the other companies we all patronize. Whose causes are they donating to? Wouldn’t you want to know?

Many are still hiding this information from you, and their own shareholders, according to the latest report by Center for Political Accountability (CPA), a nonpartisan group that’s spent years tracking the issue.

If you buy toys from Mattel, fly Delta, use TripAdvisor, Twitter or wear Hanes undies, you have no idea whose interests you’re helping to bankroll. These companies are among the least transparent in America about their political spending, CPA found.

It’s understandable that executives are leery of the backlashes we saw against SoulCycle, Nathan’s hot dogs, New Balance, Louis Vuitton and other brands seen as supporting Trump – or those like Nike, perceived as part of the resistance.

Yeah, it is understandable. Republicans might talk about boycotts, and even do one, but, we won’t be out front of the company protesting, we won’t be abusing the company, we won’t be going to the homes of the big wigs, we won’t be breaking the windows, nor all the other stuff the Woke crowd does. We won’t be trying to drive them out of business.

Of course, this really isn’t about underwear

But transparency is our last remaining hope against an America dominated by oligarchs. The fight about containing political money has been lost, thanks mostly to Supreme Court decisions like Citizens United. Their money is already contaminating our politics.

This has been a big bugaboo from the Democrats since the decision came out, even though Democrats take advantage of it constantly. But, the article still really isn’t so much about Citizens United as forcing compliance in order to beat up Republican donating companies

The least we can do now is force companies to publicly acknowledge it. Even the Supreme Court invited Congress to force disclosure of this spending.

The idea here, though, is to make companies divulge their donations so they can be “shamed”, bludgeoned, really, by Democrat forces for committing Wrongthink.

And it’s not just about one politician. It’s about issues like gun safety and climate change. Google, Bank of America and Coca-Cola all represented themselves as climate defenders, only to be caught donating to a GOP group seeking to undo limits on carbon pollution.

Companies with very progressive diversity policies might be discovered to be backing politicians who engage in racial gerrymandering or voter suppression tactics. They run a real risk of being attacked for hypocrisy

See?

When will the Star Ledger report what candidates, parties, and special interests they donate to?