Chris Roemer: Businesses have be careful when choosing sides in the culture wars | COMMENTARY

It seems more and more people are concluding it’s important they understand the political leanings of the companies with whom they do business, and it’s not only companies with a national profile that are capturing their attention.

In ways both large and small, local companies, too, make decisions that weigh in on social issues.

How and where a business sources the products it sells, whether or not a retailer uses “paper or plastic,” and the policies a company establishes to govern employee relations are all ways a business says, “This is who we are.”

Interestingly, a study by Peter G. Klein at Baylor University and Nicolai J. Foss at the Copenhagen Business School argues employees can use woke ideology to advance their careers. The study suggests “wokeness arises from middle managers and support personnel using their delegated responsibility and specialist status to engage in woke internal advocacy, which may increase their influence and job security.”

In other words, by embracing “wokeness,” managers protect their jobs and pave a path to more senior positions.

Every year, human resource professionals — the high priests and priestesses of the woke religion — recruit and hire a new crop of college graduates having been carefully groomed to embrace woke theology.

Once established in their new roles, these future titans of industry often become enthusiastic woke evangelists, operating with all the zealotry of the Spanish Inquisition, within corporate frameworks that make conversion to the woke faith as optional as converting to Christianity was during the actual Spanish Inquisition.

But despite their growing power and influence, these managers are now beginning to realize their woke credentials no longer guarantee future professional success.

As it turns out, there is something that trumps their zealotry.

Profits.

Former Bud Light Marketing Vice President Alissa Heinerscheid’s career took a major hit after that brand’s disastrous partnership with Dylan Mulvaney.

Even Disney executives are learning the limits of their woke activism. A recent company filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission included a reference to “risks relating to misalignment with public and consumer tastes.”

“Generally, our revenues and profitability are adversely impacted when our entertainment offerings and products, as well as our methods to make our offerings and products available to consumers, do not achieve sufficient consumer acceptance.”

Disney went on to note that “consumers’ perceptions of our position on matters of public interest, including our efforts to achieve certain of our environmental and social goals, often differ widely and present risks to our reputation and brands.”

Customers vote with their pocketbooks.

But what happens when private businesses stop responding to the left’s efforts to pressure them into adopting its preferred policies?

Progressive politicians simply pass legislation that mandate the corporate policies they want.

Enter California. Why is it always California?

On Jan. 1, a new California law went into effect that requires major retailers or companies with 500 or more employees to have a gender neutral kids toy section for children 12 years old and under.

In other words, “woke” is now the law in California.

Apparently, the left no longer cares how much power the state wields as long as it’s doing its bidding.

Earlier this year, Target pulled back on some of its Pride Merchandising in response to a significant backlash from its customers.

Perhaps there should be laws preventing Target from being responsive to its customer base in that regard.

Some are now claiming to see a shift in corporate attitudes away from DEI  and related policies. A recent article in The Messenger declared “Corporate Woke-ism is Dying.”

Maybe it is, but if “voluntary” compliance to “wokeism” is beginning to wane, you can expect progressive politicians to adopt a different approach for getting what they want — passing laws that mandate compliance.

Every company in America has a right to choose whether or not to get involved in the culture wars, and every American citizen has the right to decide whether or not to give those businesses their hard-earned money.

Regardless of one’s political orientation, do we really want to surrender our “right to choose” by giving government — any government, whether it be the state of California or city of Westminster, which has passed its own law mandating its  preference for paper over plastic  — the power to make these decisions for us?

We’ve opened Pandora’s Box before.

Look where it has brought us.

Chris Roemer is a retired banker and educator who resides in Finksburg. He can be contacted at chrisroemer1960@gmail.com