Miss Information – Corporations’ Avowed Support for Democracy Quickly Evaporated

By Judy Gordon, DPSC Secretary

Before last February, Miss Information had not set foot in her neighborhood Walmart. Her stance was a protest against Walmart’s notoriously poor treatment of its employees. That changed in February when the New Mexico health department directed her husband—to his dismay—to report to Walmart for his covid vaccination. Even Walmart’s disgraceful employment practices weren’t going to deter Mr. Information from getting his vaccination.

We were consoled by a January New York Times article headlined, “Walmart joins companies suspending donations to lawmakers who voted against certifying the election.”

But by April, Walmart had donated $30,000 to the National Republican Campaign Committee (NRCC) and $30,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), the two main Republican committees that support the 147 insurrectionist members of Congress, dubbed the Sedition Caucus.

And what about our neighbor, Intel? The month after announcing that it would stop PAC contributions to Sedition Caucus members, it sent $15,000 to the NRCC, apparently finding its previous principled position inconvenient.

By February, the ethics watchdog CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Government) had identified nearly 190 companies that pledged to halt donations to Sedition Caucus lawmakers. These included Anheuser-Busch, AT&T, Boeing, Cigna Comcast, GE, iHeartMedia, Koch Industries, Oracle, Pfizer, PNC Bank, Sanofi, and Walgreens. These companies and many others very quickly and quietly abandoned their commitment to withhold support from insurrectionists. Many others appear, so far, to be withholding their donations.

Tragically, many corporations find the corrosive practice of buying political access and influence to be more important than maintaining our democracy. That is the definition of a corrupt system.

Top Corporate Donors to Sedition Caucus Members

Source: CREW, “ This sedition brought to you by…,” accessed July 27 , 2021.