"We hear you," says Anheuser Busch. But do they? The evidence says otherwise. Obviously the Democrats don’t hear the people. They don’t recognize that, in general, the people are smarter than Chuck Schumer looks. They are complaining that Biden is not getting enough credit for bringing down inflation, inflation that he created. Oh, and while inflation may be officially at 4%, that’s only because the government doesn’t include all of the things people need in their inflation calculation. And it’s still significantly higher than when Biden took office. Nor do they include the devaluation of money which is also inflation that people must deal with.
And real wages have declined as well. As Larry Kudlow observed from Bureau of Labor statistics, “the bottom 25 percent of income earners have seen their real incomes fall by 2.3 percent, while the second income quartile has fallen 3.9 percent.”
The military services are in a similar position with the failure of its Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity (DIE) programs, drag queens, and transgender recruiting attempts. They are failing to meet recruiting targets. As the NY Post reported, “Last fiscal year, the Navy barely achieved its 33,400 recruitment target for new sailors, according to the Navy Times, but came up short of its 2,507 target for active duty officer promotions and missed its goal of 1,360 reserve officers by almost 400, per the report.” As reported by the Center for Military Readiness, “The Army’s identity-based advertising has proved to be a failure in recruiting,” The Army missed its recruiting goal last year and, according to Army Secretary Christine Wormuth, is expected to miss again this year, despite claims to the contrary by the Army’s senior enlisted man. With the exception of the Marines, all branches are experiencing recruiting problems.
The military has traditionally been more homogenous, more conservative, and more constitutionally oriented than the population at large. The introduction of DIE, “woke” policies, identity and transgender politics, and searching for “extremism” within the ranks (read conservative- leaning members) has resulted in those who would be most likely to serve turning their backs on the possibilities of a military career. I personally know people who have advised family members and friends to avoid entering the military in this environment, even though military service may be more critical than ever. The military wants to deny the impact of wokeness on recruitment, but this comment from an academy minority woman cadet is very telling: “Being politically correct has somehow become the most crucial part of our training. I pray our adversaries are wasting as much time on this as we are” (emphasis added).
Back to Bud Light, “Anheuser-Busch’s global chief marketing officer, Marcel Marcondes, told the Cannes Lions International Festival, according to a report from AdAge. “It’s tough exactly because what we do is all about bringing people together.” So, AB’s “we hear you” isn’t exactly that. If they did hear us they would realize that the whole transgender sham is divisive (and so, for that matter, is the LGBTQ+ pride push) and promoting it will not bring people together. In fact, the whole identity politics program, including DIE, is divisive.
And, despite the experience of AB, there are companies who are apparently deaf and not hearing. “Coors Light, the light beer brand of Molson Coors, will be the title sponsor of Denver’s “pride” parade. When asked for comment, the parent company brashly defended the decision, saying they will continue to side with the transgender movement “for decades to come.””
And now the truth comes out. It’s not about accepting gays or even gender dysphoria -- it’s about grooming. “They” don’t just want to be accepted, they want to corrupt more children to their abnormal (yes, it’s abnormal, not in accord with nature) way of life. The pop music icon, Elton John, has announced that, due to the anti-grooming laws being enacted in many states, he will no longer perform in the U.S.
Of course, he may end up going the way of Disney, whose image and market suffered when they tried to challenge Florida’s “Parental Rights in Education Bill” prohibiting inappropriate sexual information being presented to children below third grade. This has extended to the flop of usually high-performing Pixar production pushing social messaging.
What this tells me is that retailers, entertainment firms, Hollywood, many major sports organizations, and their ilk do not hear us. But the people are listening and are fed up. Bud Light still shows no signs of recovering, nor does Target. Threats against Target which the media tried to blame on conservatives actually came from LGBTQ+ groups, claiming betrayal of that community. Major League Baseball, while not eliminating “Pride” events, has scaled back on them. There was a huge protest at the LA Dodgers “Pride Night” event where the Dodgers were honoring a hate group that denigrated and mocked Catholicism.
The silent majority appears to be finding its voice. We are learning that we can impact the bottom line of corporate America. And that may be the only way to make them listen, that they should concentrate on business and not politics. We need to maintain the boycotts that are in process and perhaps start new ones when these corporations decide to spit in our faces for the sake of groups that make up less than 10 percent of the population.
We need to continue to speak up, turn to God, and pray. Pray for those who push to instill their bad behavior on us and our children. We need to vote at the ballot box and with our wallets. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” (Proverbs 1:7)