I wrote an entire Substack article based on a proposed Democratic New Year’s Resolution. “Stop Walking into GOP Traps.” It began with a “parable” based in Florida. Though traps are laid everywhere, Florida has particularly tall grass and a man who would rather lay traps in contemplation of a presidential run than do anything positive for the state.
The resolution is to ignore traps and focus on the big problems, like flying asylum-seekers, people in the country legally, to Martha’s Vineyard – a major issue, not a trap.
This below is a trap, and we need to just walk around it. From Yahoo News:
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) moved to prohibit state-run fund managers from taking environmental, social or governance (ESG) factors into consideration when making investments.
“Corporations across America continue to inject an ideological agenda through our economy rather than through the ballot box. Today’s actions reinforce that ESG considerations will not be tolerated here in Florida, and I look forward to extending these protections during this legislative session,” DeSantis said in a release.
ESG investing considers nonfinancial environmental and social factors, as well as traditional financial metrics, when looking at an investment’s risk and growth potential.
In other words, DeSantis is announcing that his state is f’ing done with investing in “woke” companies. But it’s only an announcement, little – if any – meat.
How many of you honestly believe that “state fund managers” look beyond an investment’s risk and growth potential to make a statement regarding this ESG woke thing? If it happened, DeSantis would have a ready-made list of companies in which the state of Florida invested by seriously taking ESG considerations, correct? But near as we can tell, he didn’t.
What happens when “traditional financial metrics” are part-driven by ESG considerations, progressive values that increase the bottom line? If a power company starts to move a fraction of its product away from petroleum-based power generation to wind and solar because – traditional financial metrics – say that they can generate more electricity at less cost? Is Florida allowed to invest in such a company?
What about Disney or American Airlines, companies that may consider diversity a competitive advantage and have the numbers to back it up? Are “State fund managers” supposed to ignore companies that may have serious growth potential (I don’t know) solely because these companies see that diversity as both socially desirable, in part because it raises the stock price?
See? It is a trap. Until DeSantis starts giving examples of companies that aren’t acceptable, he has nothing but an announcement meant to “trigger” the libs and improve DeSantis’s bona fides if he runs for president. So, somewhat like “Don’t Say Gay,” which originally only involved teaching K-3rd grade about LGBTQ lifestyles (When they aren’t teaching straight values, either), don’t fall into his trap and make a big deal of this. If “Don’t Say Gay” stayed “K-3rd Grade,” no one would’ve heard of it and DeSantis would be deprived of one of his greatest “victories.”
He wants the left to go nuts. It is a free commercial, over and over again. We need to ignore it. Say, “Good luck defining that. Just stay asleep, Ron. Let the grown-ups handle things.” Actually, don’t say a thing. Just laugh under your breath.
If DeSantis starts firing people and making even more bizarre laws, perhaps then it becomes a big thing worth addressing. As is? Pffft. We have serious problems in this country.
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[email protected], @JasonMiciak, SUBSTACK: KYLE RITTENHOUSE IS MAGA’S GEN Z HERO AND INCREASINGLY DANGEROUS
“So, somewhat like “Don’t Say Gay,” which originally only involved teaching K-3rd grade about LGBTQ lifestyles (When they aren’t teaching straight values, either),”
False equivalency, there, Jason. They don’t HAVE to be “teaching straight values.” When Mrs Stackhouse starts showing signs of a “bun in the oven” and she’s got pictures of Mr Stackhouse on her desk, and most of the kids in the room come from families with a mommy and a daddy, there’s no need to TEACH “straight values.” And that’s why the bill became denounced as “Don’t Say Gay” because the bill would also ban teachers from explaining why little Danielle is there at a school function with her two mommies or her two daddies.
Please stop offering opinions that play right into heteronormative behavior. The “conservatives” will always say that “the left is teaching LGBTQ+ values” while ignoring that the baseline is set at “straight is the normal.” De Santis was out there saying EXACTLY what you said: That the policy was “only” to “protect” the rights of “families” to teach their kids. His opponents were RIGHTLY pointing out that not all families are “one mom/one dad.” Some of the kids IN THE CLASSROOMS have parents that are same-sex but THEIR families suddenly–under this bill–became verboten, by government decree.
Oh, and by the way, the main problem with the bill was that, for everyone above third grade, it was silent. De Santis was using the weasel words of “age-appropriate” without actually defining when that was. And, without actual definition at all school levels, that left it up to local school administrations and school boards so that what was okay in Miami might not be okay in Marianna (yes, that is a real city in Florida–in the Florida panhandle about an hour’s drive west of Tallahassee).
I agree. Let journalists talk about it all they want but Democrats should when asked to comment change the subject with a “That’s between Florida voters and their Governor. But let’s talk about…”