Republicans, typically vocal proponents of “letting the free market decide,” are throwing tantrums and calling for corporate boycotts after the free market decided to speak out against Georgia GOP lawmakers’ restrictive voting law.
Their fury is being directed primarily at Coca-Cola and Delta Air Lines, whose CEOs slammed the law last week. Conservatives have also railed against Major League Baseball (MLB) for yanking its All-Star game from Atlanta on Friday.
Now, Republicans are vowing to make baseball and soda feel their wrath.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) announced on Monday that he would not throw out the first pitch at the Texas Rangers’ opening game, accusing the MLB of “perpetuating false political narratives.”
“Guess what I am doing today? Not watching baseball!!!!” GOP chair Ronna McDaniel tweeted on Saturday.
That same day, eight Georgia Republican House lawmakers wrote to Kevin Perry, president of the Georgia Beverage Association, demanding that all products by Coca-Cola be expelled from their offices.
Some Georgia Republican state legislators are removing @CocaCola products from their statehouse offices after the Atlanta-based beverage giant criticized the new elections law. #gapol pic.twitter.com/leojXBGQAM
— Greg Bluestein (@bluestein) April 3, 2021
“Given Coke’s choice to cave to the pressure of an out of control cancel culture, we respectfully request all Coca-Cola Company products to be removed from our office suite immediately,” they wrote.
Ex-President Donald Trump also jumped on the bandwagon.
“Boycott baseball and all of the woke companies that are interfering with Free and Fair Elections,” he ranted in a statement through his Save America PAC on Friday. “Are you listening Coke, Delta, and all!”
Republicans’ outrage isn’t being confined to simple rhetoric, either: In addition to moving to banish Coke products from their offices, Georgia House Republicans also voted to strip Delta of its jet fuel tax break last week. Meanwhile, Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Mike Lee (R-UT), plus Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC), have vowed to revoke the MLB’s antitrust exemption in a decidedly uncharacteristic embrace of corporate regulation.
“#GowokeGobroke,” Cruz tweeted on Friday.
The bluster recalls a smaller but similarly clownish protest by Fox News Sean Hannity’s fans in 2017 in which they filmed themselves smashing their Keurig machines after the coffee maker company pulled its ads from Hannity’s program for hosting failed Senate candidate and alleged child molester Roy Moore.
Coca-Cola, the MLB, and Delta have not responded directly to Republicans’ attacks, so it remains to be seen whether those billion-dollar corporations will be cowed by angry tweets and product banishments from statehouse offices.
