Big Business Goes Left, Biden's Bad Messaging, Israel Apartheid Week

Gary Bauer

by Gary Bauer: Big Business Goes Left
The media and our universities have been dominated by the radical left for decades. But have you noticed that big business now increasingly sides with the left? Sometimes I wonder whether they even realize they are American companies.

For years, we watched in horror as iconic American corporations moved their factories overseas, often to communist China. Their actions devastated American families and communities, and the companies became apologists for communist China.

China's human rights abuses have been well-documented for decades. Whether it was forced abortions under its barbaric one-child policy or the suppression of free speech and religious freedom. None of that stopped American companies from enriching themselves and communist China.

Now the brutal communist regime has ended what little freedom remained in Hong Kong. Even worse, it stands accused of committing genocide against ethnic minorities.

Where are the statements of condemnation from corporate America and the NBA? How dare these "woke" corporations lecture us about our values when they are profiting off of slave labor!

But not only are these American corporations soft on communists abroad, they are making common cause with socialists here at home.

Big tech companies like Facebook and YouTube are shutting down conservative viewpoints. Pro-life messages are blocked. Conservative Christian messages are blocked. Books that promote biological reality are banned. Silencing free speech is what totalitarian regimes do.

In recent years, several states tried to protect religious liberty and ensure that our daughters were safe in public restrooms. But big corporations blasted the commonsense legislation as bigoted. They threatened to boycott those states if the legislation passed.

Why do these companies think they can dictate our values when they refuse to speak up against communist China's atrocities?

Fast forward to today. Millions of Americans have serious concerns about the last election. Many states are advancing bills to roll back the "emergency" pandemic orders that radically changed election laws and made fraud easier. Several courts have ruled that these bureaucratic changes were in fact illegal. (Here, here and here.)

But the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and several big corporations, bowing to pressure from the left, just announced their opposition to Georgia's critical election reform measures.

For years conservatives like me have proudly supported American business. I still do, particularly when it involves small businesses and entrepreneurs who are the backbone of our economy. I believe in free markets and the fundamentals of capitalism.

But many big corporations are now handmaidens of the radical left. And as the left-wing crowd in Washington gets ready to massively raise taxes on multinational corporations, they will find few, if any, allies on the right willing to defend them.

Biden's Bad Messaging
President Biden finally addressed the crisis on the southern border last night. In an interview with ABC News, Biden essentially repeated what other administration officials have said.

He told migrants, "Don't come," and then proceeded to discuss how we were accommodating all the unaccompanied children at the border. (By the way, Biden also conceded that these "children" were mostly 16 and 17 year-olds.)

Press Secretary Jen Psaki and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorjkas have said this before. But always with qualifiers like, "Don't come now," i.e., coming illegally later is fine, and "This is not the time to come" or "We don't have the processing we need at the border."

Biden's messaging is terrible. He's not discouraging illegal aliens, he's coordinating with them. What they're really saying is, "You're overwhelming us. We can't process you fast enough. You're making us look bad. Take a number!"

This is not a message against illegal immigration. At best, it's a plea for more orderly illegal immigration so it doesn't cause too much political blowback on the president and his allies.

You don't have to take my word for it. Democrats are feeling the heat.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) was asked about the border situation Monday. He said, "Oh, it's a crisis. Whatever message was sent, it sure was interpreted the wrong way."

Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) said, "We have got to get the right message. You know, when you say, 'Don't come now, come later,' that message, in my opinion, is not a very good message. We have to be very clear as to what we mean on the border because the president or the administration's message is not getting through."

Fuming Over The Filibuster
Senate liberals and their allies in the progressive movement are planning an assault on the filibuster rule. It's an arcane rule of the Senate that distinguishes it from the House of Representatives by requiring super-majority support for most legislation.

While Democrats initially promised to preserve the filibuster, the evidence is clear that they are getting ready to go "nuclear" so they can eliminate it.

They are desperate to get their radical wish list – nationalization of elections, the misnamed Equality Act and a massive amnesty bill – passed at any cost. Even Joe Biden, who said he opposed eliminating the filibuster just 10 days ago, now says he's open to "reform."

The threat is real, my friends. So much so that Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell went to the Senate floor yesterday to strongly warn his colleagues what a "scorched-earth Senate" would look like if Democrats nuke the filibuster. He said:

"This is an institution that requires unanimous consent to turn the lights on before noon. To proceed with a garden-variety floor speech. To dispense with the reading of lengthy legislative text. To schedule committee business. . .

"I want my colleagues to imagine a world where every single task requires a physical quorum — for which the vice president does not count, by the way. . . This is not a trade-off between trampling etiquette but then getting to quickly transform the country. That's a false choice. . .

"This chaos would not open up an express lane to liberal change. . . The Senate would be more like a hundred-car pile-up. Nothing moving."

And to think that so many Americans voted for Joe Biden thinking that he and the Democrats were going to unite the country!

Israel Apartheid Week
Radical Muslim student groups and the BDS movement are promoting a disgusting myth this week known as "Israel Apartheid Week." As the name clearly states, they are comparing the Jewish state to the South African apartheid regime of racial segregation.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Israel is the most diverse nation in the Middle East. It fully protects the rights of minority citizens.

Israel's Arab citizens can vote in elections. Israeli Arabs serve in Israel's parliament, the Knesset. They also serve in the Israeli military. Salim Joubran, an Israeli Arab citizen, served on Israel's Supreme Court for 14 years. This is hardly apartheid.

Anyone who accuses Israel of being an "apartheid state," clearly knows nothing about Operation Moses, a secret mission to rescue 8,000 Ethiopians Jews from Sudan and bring them to Israel.

If we want to discuss "apartheid states," let's talk about the Palestinian Authority. Anti-Israel activists claim that Israel is oppressing the Palestinians because they don't have a state of their own.

Well, that's entirely the fault of the Palestinian leadership. The Palestinians have repeatedly rejected very generous offers for a Palestinian state. And if they ever do get a state, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas insists that it must be "Jew free."
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Gary Bauer (@GaryLBauer)  is a conservative family values advocate and serves as president of American Values and chairman of the Campaign for Working Families

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