RCI's Guide to Politicized Capitalism: Three Key 'Unwoke' Players

Part of RealClearInvestigations' Guide 
to Politicized Capitalism 
(Home page and overview here)

On This Page: Three Key Opponents of Woke Capitalism. 
(See also: Three Key Proponents)

1. Gov. Ron DeSantis

Florida’s Republican governor has pursued a series of legislative proposals and administrative actions opposing ESG. His most visible efforts have come in his stripping of woke corporations of their government-granted perks, privileges, and tax breaks. In the spring of 2022 The Walt Disney Co. outspokenly opposed Florida’s law barring public schools from instructing young children on sexual orientation. DeSantis responded by engineering a legislative revocation of Disney World’s longstanding special tax status. Weeks later, when Major League Baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays went public in support of gun restrictions after mass shootings in Buffalo, N.Y. and Uvalde, Texas, DeSantis vetoed $35 million in government spending for a new spring training facility for the Rays. DeSantis is one of a number of red state officials leading the pushback against ESG. Read more about them here. 

2. Vivek Ramaswamy

The former financier and entrepreneur left the biotech company he founded to speak out against progressive corporate activism, culminating in the 2021 New York Times bestselling book, “Woke, Inc.” Ramaswamy is now putting his views into action. In May 2022, his Strive Asset Management, an Ohio-based investment firm announced its launch. The firm aims to “depoliticize corporate America” by challenging BlackRock and its peers, decrying their invocation of “stakeholder capitalism” to justify using “clients’ funds to exercise decisive influence over nearly every U.S. public company to advance political ideologies that many of their clients disagree with.” Strive proposes instead to promote “Excellence Capitalism,” supporting “American companies to focus exclusively on delivering excellent products and services to their customers…” (More about Strive and some of its peers here.)

3. 2ndVote

A conservative watchdog for corporate activism, the nonprofit’s mission is to “stop companies and organizations from funding the attack on traditional American values.” 2ndVote scores companies on issues such as their commitment to life, basic freedoms, and the Second Amendment by analyzing their political contributions, corporate policies, lobbying and other activities. (More on 2ndVote’s peers here.) The related 2ndVote Advisers offers investment products and research aimed at customers who want to invest in companies focused on returning value to shareholders over political activism.