WASHINGTON, DC, Aug 8 — Capitalism being the backbone of American Democracy is a concept that dates back nearly 200 years when in 1831 the French diplomat Alexis de Tocqueville toured America at the behest of French King Louis Philippe I. His mission: to see how things were going for the relatively new independent democratic republic of America. When de Tocqueville got home he told the king that within a hundred years America would be one of two great powers in the world, the other being Russia.
His prediction came true, although Russia has not fared so well neither in its communist days nor now under the rule of Vlad “the Impaler” Putin.
Why then are socialists seeking to foist on us what is known as “woke capitalism” — a nonsensical, ill-informed, economically counter-productive version of what made us great the first time around and that can make us great again.
Robert Weissberg, a retired University of Illinois professor of political science, says “A possible explanation for the stampede of corporate foolishness: top executives do not fear shareholders; rather, they fear their own employees, and going woke is perceived as the best and cheapest way of assuaging these fears. CEOs certainly recognize the vulnerability of private property at the hands of angry mobs, and signing a petition is a cheap insurance policy.”
Tim Doescher, Associate Director of Coalition Relations at The Heritage Foundation, explains that “This trend toward corporatism or corporate wokeness is becoming more and more popular throughout corporate America. Corporations are willingly becoming activated political arms for left-wing causes. Why? What happened to these historic brands remaining neutral, letting the quality of their products speak for itself on the open market, and letting politicians worry about politics? What about shareholders and the employees of these corporations? Do they have a say in such divisive policy stances? Who’s behind this increased wokeness in the boardroom?”
Another Heritage executive, Andy Olivastro, says what the left is trying to do is to re-define capitalism in order to allow anti-American elements to undermine the corporate heart of America.
In the good old days, chief among corporate stakeholders were the shareholders. The left is trying to redefine stakeholders to include “every member of society, rather than those who own the company’s shares,” according to Ethan Peck at the National Center’s Free Enterprise Project. The Epoch Times reports that Peck compares “stakeholder capitalism to communism, where the state controls and redistributes resources in the name of a ‘greater good.’ It’s kind of the corporate version of communism … it’s a trick. It just empowers the boards to basically take voting powers and rights from the shareholders.”
Peck warns that stakeholder capitalists could care less for shareholder rights, rather they seek to use corporate funding for leftist political tasks such as getting rid of voter IDs and the teaching our youngest children all about “radical sex and gender ideologies.”
Let’s face it, woke capitalists are communist wolves in sheep’s clothing. Radical socialism has already assumed a prominent presence in local, state and federal governments, our schools and the entertainment sector. And they’ve achieved success in infiltrating corporations [think Disney]. And now they seek to expand their control of the rest of corporate America using the not-so-subtle moniker, woke capitalism.
The irony of woke capitalism is that it is a new way to promote a communist view of life. They seek to replace capitalism with a system of political and corporate governance that has never lived up to the Marxist pipe dream. Yet, ideologically bent teachers, professors and politicians have convinced a goodly share of the population, including the next generations of Americans, that it is still a viable way to run a country.
Yes, the socialists among us have made headway. But Pew Researchers found that capitalism — real capitalism — is still the preference of 65% of us versus just one-third of those who were polled and who have a positive view of socialism.