Arizona Governor Doug Ducey did the right thing when he declared on Twitter that Nike would not receive incentives for coming to Arizona. He was taking a stand against their unpatriotic decision to stop making apparel with the Betsy Ross American flag on it, a decision prompted by professional social justice warrior Colin Kaepernick’s claims the flag is a racist symbol.
Arizona’s economy is doing just fine without Nike. We don’t need to suck up to companies that consciously denigrate our nation’s history. 8/
— Doug Ducey (@dougducey) July 2, 2019
We covered it and praised the Governor for his patriotic decision.
Then, he changed his mind without explanation and pretended like nothing had happened before the 4th of July in his announcement of the “good news” on Twitter;
This is good news for Arizona and for @GoodyearAZGov. 500 plus jobs. Over $184 million in capital investment. Arizona is open for business, and we welcome @Nike to our state. https://t.co/ZLPkcs3dkD
— Doug Ducey (@dougducey) July 11, 2019
Whatever political pressure he was receiving to reverse his decision and suddenly join Team Nike is bogus. I don’t care what it was. If the pressure was so great that his hand was forced, then he should have come out reluctantly accepting something he couldn’t change instead of suddenly embracing the opposite outcome of his previous stand. Trying to sweep this under the rug by relying on a news cycle and voter base stricken with ADHD is a huge problem that hits both sides of the political aisle, as Ducey demonstrates as a Republican. We have plenty of examples of this for Democrats, of course.
This is the type of ingenuous pandering to special interest groups that should infuriate people. 500 new jobs is great, but here’s the thing. Nike effectively gave the American flag and patriotic Americans the finger. They should be the subject of boycotts, but as Ducey and many conservatives have demonstrated in the past, the greatest weakness of the right is our unwillingness to take a stand by holding back our dollars. We’re a pragmatic bunch, so more jobs sounds great. But the line must be drawn or companies will continue to pretend like American patriotism is anathema in the modern world.
Those who support America have become enemies of the left in this post-truth society. The left is willing to boycott. Why won’t the right? Doug Ducey did the hard thing, the brave thing. Then he reversed himself. Pitiful.
We are currently forming the American Conservative Movement. If you are interested in learning more, we will be sending out information in a few weeks.
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