Thanks to its culture war, the GOP and Big Business are finally breaking up

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ head-scratching public vendetta against Disney over its opposition to Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law, dubbed by critics the “Don’t Say Gay” law, sends a clear message to boardrooms across the country: Stay the heck out of politics. 

The law bans the discussion of LGBTQ topics in classrooms from kindergarten to third grade. When the bill was first introduced, Disney employees and customers called on the company’s CEO to publicly denounce it. After initially refusing to do so and suffering backlash, he made an announcement criticizing the legislation. DeSantis responded by signing a bill that revoked the company’s special self-governing district status, which had been in place since 1967. 

But the DeSantis versus Disney imbroglio is a mere preview of a much larger collision underfoot within the GOP between the MAGA-inspired cultural warriors who now control the party and the traditional low tax and deregulation conservatives. It’s a clash that is finally breaking the decades-long alliance between Big Business and the GOP.

Thankfully, CEOs are finally waking up and realizing that the Republican Party is not their friend anymore. The cultural zealots that have hijacked much of the GOP are pushing America to the precipice of the biggest political realignment in nearly 100 years. It’s one where corporate America’s strategic interests — keeping their paying customers and workforce happy — will begin to align more closely with Democrats than Republicans, marking a seismic shift in the political landscape. 

In the months and years ahead, we expect to see an increasing number of large corporations join Disney in playing more activist roles in supporting progressive policies and decrying the erosion of rights and liberties, thereby naturally aligning themselves with Democrats.