If it wasn’t for double standards, some liberals would have none at all
If it wasn’t for double standards, some
liberals would have none at all. That seems to be the lesson from the past few
weeks, where liberals have displayed three distinct forms of hypocrisy.
Liberal governors and mayors signed travel
bans to North Carolina and Mississippi, CEOs of major corporations pledged
boycotts and relocations, and Bruce Springsteen and Bryan Adams have canceled
scheduled concerts in those states.
At issue are a
Mississippi law that narrowly and
carefully protects the rights of religious charities, small businesses, and
select public servants and a North
Carolina law that reasonably protects privacy and
safety in public restrooms, while leaving private institutions free to set
their own bathroom policies. These laws, apparently, are now unacceptable to
some voices on the left.
But are they really? The hypocrisy in their
opposition suggests otherwise.
1.
Big Money and Big Business in
Politics Are Bad, Unless They Support the Left?
Liberals decry the influence of big business
and big money in politics. They denounce, as a direct threat to democracy, the
ability of corporations to engage in issue advocacy. They argue that
politicians must answer to the people, not the highest corporate bidder.
Or at least that’s what they used to say.
Liberals are now cheering Apple, PayPal, Salesforce, and countless other giant
corporations threatening legislators and governors with boycotts if they pass
popular laws that the left disapproves of.
These corporate elites didn’t win an argument
about good public policy. Instead, they threatened to boycott and transfer jobs
out of states if the politicians didn’t do as they insisted.
This economic coercion is a form of cronyism—cultural
cronyism. Big businesses use their outsized market
share to pressure government to do their bidding at the expense of the will of
the people and the common good. And, hypocritically, the left cheers it on.
2.
Bruce Springsteen and Bryan Adams
Get to Follow Their Consciences, but the Baker and Florist Don’t?
Many of us think that what these corporate
giants are doing is bad for representative democracy and self-government. But
they have a right to do it. And yet, they want to deny the rights of bakers,
florists, photographers, adoption agencies, and marriage counselors who only
want the same liberty to follow their conscience.
Big business is using its market freedom to
deny small businesses and charities their religious freedom. The hypocrisy is
astounding.
Take the cases of Bruce
Springsteen and Bryan Adams. They said their
consciences require them to deny their artistic gifts and talents to citizens
of states that have enacted policy they disagreed with. And, of course, they
have that right.
Adams wrote:
“I cannot in good conscience perform in a state where certain people are being
denied their civil rights.”
He’s wrong about the laws—they don’t deny
anyone civil rights. Instead, they protect
civil rights. They protect religious freedom, which, as the liberal
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) once acknowledged, is a civil liberty.
So Springsteen and Adams are exercising their
freedom of conscience by boycotting states that sought to protect the
consciences of adoption agencies, religious schools, bakers, and florists. Do
they not see the hypocrisy?
3.
North Carolina and Mississippi
Are Human Rights Violators, but Singapore and Cuba Are Great?
Finally, if these boycotts are really a matter
of principle—and not just grandstanding—then why do so many of these same
companies do business in foreign countries with terrible records on human
rights in general, and for LGBT people in particular?
The governor of North Carolina, Pat
McCrory, pointed
out this hypocrisy. After New York Governor Andrew
Cuomo issued a travel ban for state employees to North Carolina, Gov. McCrory
asked how it was consistent with Gov. Cuomo’s trip to Cuba—with state business
leaders—to promote trade with that country.
Is Cuba better on human rights than North
Carolina? Or is Cuomo being a bit hypocritical?
Others have pointed out the hypocrisy of
PayPal. The CEO of PayPal announced that the company wouldn’t expand in North
Carolina because of “PayPal’s deepest values and our strong belief that every
person has the right to be treated equally, and with dignity and respect.”
Really?
Then PayPal might want to explain why its
international headquarters are in Singapore, where people engaged in private
consensual same-sex acts can face
two years in jail. It might also want to explain
why it announced in 2012 that it would open offices in the United Arab Emirates
(UAE). While North Carolina placed some commonsense limits on public bathrooms,
the UAE
reportedly jails gay and transgender people.
What’s Next?
The left knows it can’t win on the merits in
the debate about religious
freedom and bathroom privacy. These
bills enjoy strong public support—that’s why elected representatives are voting
to pass them. And it’s why corporate
elites have to target governors to veto them.
Missouri
is likely the next state to move a religious freedom bill,
and we can expect the same cast of characters to come out in opposition. But
this time, the left and big business are entering the debate with one big
disadvantage—they’ve been beaten. Gov. Phil Bryant of Mississippi and Gov. Pat
McCrory of North Carolina have stood up
to the bullies and shattered their aura of
invincibility.
Reprinted with permission from The Daily
Signal.
