The Walt Disney company has obviously made the decision to go all-in on using its corporate resources to force Democrats’ woke left-wing agenda on children.
They’ve reached the point where there’s no turning back – the company made its choice and to retreat at this point could be just as catastrophic as forging ahead.
And now all hell is breaking loose after Disney issued Ron DeSantis an ultimatum that will leave you flabbergasted.
For years now, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has had one clear mantra when it comes to dealing with the cultural wars being waged by the woke left-wing outrage mob.
As he’s said many times publicly, “Florida is where woke goes to die.”
Unlike most every other politician in both parties, though, Governor DeSantis has stuck to his word, fighting the good fight against Democrat efforts to indoctrinate and poison children with graphic, sexually explicit materials, gender ideology, and the like.
In fact, it was DeSantis’ efforts in that fight that led him to take Disney head on, as the media and entertainment conglomerate attempted to use its considerable resources and influence to torpedo the Governor’s Parental Bill of Rights, that simply banned the teaching of sexually explicit materials, gender ideology, and other age-inappropriate topics to students younger than fourth grade.
In response to Disney’s efforts to force woke left-wing indoctrination and graphic sexual content on children, Governor DeSantis moved to strip the company of the special self-governing privileges it’s enjoyed in the state of Florida, as it’s been allowed to essentially run the Reedy Creek Improvement District – which encompasses all of the company’s more than 20,000 acre Walt Disney World property outside Orlando – unilaterally without any involvement from government.
Disney’s new retread CEO Bob Iger hasn’t taken the Governor’s efforts to treat Disney like any other company doing business in the state of Florida too kindly, and has proceeded to engage DeSantis and the state in a legal battle while continuing to publicly pretend as though he’s above the Governor, state, and every other citizen.
And as a result, Iger recently threatened to freeze the company’s hiring and future investments in Florida unless DeSantis caves to his demands.
“We operate responsibly,” Iger claimed during a recent earnings call with investors. “We pay our fair share of taxes. We employ thousands of people. And by the way, we pay them above the minimum wage, substantially above the minimum wage dictated by the state of Florida.”
“So I’m going to finish. . . by asking one question: Does the state want us to invest more, employ more people and pay more taxes, or not?” the CEO threatened.
Of course, the idea that Disney would simply abandon the state of Florida in order to continue its vendetta against DeSantis – and common decency – is utterly absurd.
The company has invested hundreds of billions of dollars into the Walt Disney World property outside Orlando, and has billions of dollars already invested in future projects in the state over the next few years.
Furthermore, Disney’s American theme parks – both Walt Disney World and California’s Disneyland – accounted for more than $5 billion in revenue for the company in 2022, significantly more than the $1.1 billion generated by all of its international parks combined.
And the overwhelming majority of that $5 billion was generated by Walt Disney World in Florida, as it is a significantly larger property that can accommodate far more guests, has far more individual parks, and significantly more resorts, water parks, and other attractions.
Walt Disney World also employs more than 50,000 more people than Disneyland, meaning the company putting a freeze on hiring in Florida would quickly result in the theme park being incredibly understaffed, and put major hurting on the company’s bottom line.
These are facts Governor DeSantis understands well, so he understandably proceeded to shrug off Iger’s threat.
As The Orlando Sentinel reported, the new Reedy Creek Improvement District board appointed by the Governor is exploring the possibility of creating “a code enforcement system that could issue fines to Walt Disney World” up to $500 per day per code violation.
And should Disney refuse to pay the fines, the board “would also authorize foreclosures on any liens” – seeing Cinderella’s castle be foreclosed would be quite the sight.
For years, corporations have attempted to play both sides of the political aisle, begging Republicans to save them from Democrats’ over-regulation, while happily doing the woke left-wing outrage mob’s bidding to avoid another Occupy Wall Street situation.
But now, conservatives can see right through their charade, and are rejecting corporatism in mass.
And Governor Ron DeSantis is simply the tip of the spear.
Political Animal News will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this ongoing story.
