After the Supreme Court ruled in 2010 that companies could finance election spending, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) celebrated the prospect that corporate America would enter — and influence — the political fray.
“For too long, some in this country have been deprived of full participation in the political process,” he said in a statement at the time. He hailed the decision by Citizens United as “an important step” in “restoring the First Amendment rights of these groups.”
But just over a decade later, McConnell has a different message for companies: Unless it involves money, they had better stay quiet.
“My warning to corporate America is to stay out of politics,” McConnell said at a news conference in Kentucky on Tuesday, before adding: “I’m not talking about political contributions.”
His comments come amid an escalating battle over Georgia’s sweeping new voting law, which has been publicly condemned by major companies based in the state, including Coca-Cola and Delta Air Lines. Major League Baseball has moved its All-Star Game out of Atlanta in response to the legislation, saying it will restrict access to the ballot.
Biden supports corporations that condemn Georgia’s voting law but says leaving the state may hurt hourly workers.
Similar showdowns appear to be brewing elsewhere, with American Airlines criticising a Texas bill that would prohibit extended voting hours and outlaw drive-through voting across the state, among several other major changes.
McConnell has long supported companies’ political participation, but on Tuesday he joined the Republican charge of attacking corporations for speaking out on the voting laws by drawing a distinction between donations and corporate statements.
“Most of them contribute to both sides. They have political action committees. That’s fine. It’s legal. It’s appropriate. I support that, “the reporters said. “I’m talking about taking a stand on such a highly flammable topic and sanctioning a society or a state because you don’t like a specific law that they have passed. I think it’s just dumb. “
In a speech at the beginning of the week, he argued that Georgia’s voting law would facilitate access to polls and warn companies who reject the changes: if Republicans continue to be condemned and “economic extortion,” said McConnell, they would face unclear consequences.
“The private sector is continuing to wake up as a parallel government, from election law to environmentalism through progressive social agendas to the Second Amendment,” McConnell said in a declaration. “Undertakings would provoke severe consequences if they become a tool for left-wing people to take our country out of the constitutional order.”
In the past, McConnell commented on the role of big business in a democracy, sometimes in somewhat different ways, as NPR noted in the latest episode of its podcast “Embedded.”
While a young McConnell worked in Kentucky as an attorney during the 1970s, he called for more money in politics before he taught a college class.
“The three things that you need to succeed in politics and create a party – money, money, money,” NPR recorded in a memorable lecture on the chalkboard.
He proceeded to argue that it would be a first amendment right to spend money on politics. This conviction followed him to Washington. And he himself practiced it: McConnell raised millions of dollars to support campaigns — and filibustered numerous measures to control the industry.
In the Senate, he fought with Arizona’s GOP Senator John McCain over the overhaul of campaign finance. After McCain joined forces with Senator Russ Feingold (D-Wis) to restrict “soft cash” contributions from parties and committees, McConnell repeatedly filibustered their bill.
When in 2002, the Senate passed a bare minimum of 60 votes on the Bipartite Campaign Reform Act, McConnell sued the Federal Elections Commission for blocking the law. The case, McConnell v. FEC, upheld much of the rule, but ultimately gave way to the 2010 United Citizens decision, which he strongly supported.
McConnell warned some Georgian businesses now referring to the state voting law that he was not the only one angry about their policy statements. Much as businesses can put their resources behind their policies, loyal party members can do the same thing, he said.
“Republicans drink coca-cola as well, and we drive, and we like baseball,” he said. We like baseball. “A lot of Republican fans are annoying hell.”
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