Disney suddenly radio silent after injecting itself into Florida politics

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Disney appears to be somewhat tucking in its tail and bowing down in silent submission amid growing criticism and protests over its decision to involve itself in Florida politics.

Disney, one of Florida’s largest private-sector employers, with nearly 80,000 workers, declined to comment on criticism from lawmakers,” The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

The cat apparently has its tongue.

Meanwhile, according to the Journal, “[i]nside the company, some executives have expressed disappointment that Disney has become politicized, said people familiar with their thinking.”

The sudden newfound public silence from Disney comes amid a growing uproar over its attacks on Florida’s widely-supported Parental Rights in Education law. The Journal notes that the consequences for Disney’s interference could be severe.

“Some Republican lawmakers in Florida are threatening to end a special tax district that has allowed the company to effectively govern the land on which Walt Disney World sits for decades. Members of Congress have called for Disney to be stripped of its original Mickey Mouse copyright,” according to the Journal.

Republicans up for reelection this year “are campaigning … on promises to stand up to Disney and other ‘woke corporations’ that they say are promoting messages and taking stands that put them out of step with the values of Florida parents and voters,”  the outlet reported.

And they seem to have a point, judging by the near-daily protests Disney now faces both at Disneyland in California and Disney World in Florida.

Look (*Language warning):

One protest at Disney World even featured Republicans running for Congress.

“About a dozen protesters and two Republican congressional candidates waved signs and shouted on a megaphone during rush-hour traffic Friday evening at State Road 535 and Hotel Plaza Boulevard” in Orlando,” according to the Orlando Sentinel.

“Anna Paulina Luna, a St. Petersburg-area Republican running for Congress, shouted at drivers with a megaphone to ‘defund Disney.’ Willie Montague, a Republican running for Congressional District 10 in the Orlando area, joined the group at the Disney entrance.”

Meanwhile in Congress, Indiana Rep. Jim Banks submitted a letter to Disney “saying he opposed extending the original copyright for Mickey Mouse, which is set to expire at the end of 2023,” according to the Journal.

While it’s customary for Disney’s copyrights to be extended, Banks now opposes “further extensions because he objects to Disney’s investments in China and because the company has ‘capitulated to far-left activists’ on LGBT issues.”

In other words, the company’s gone “woke.”

And it’s done so for a cause that most Americans oppose, according to polling data.

Those who do support the cause are a small contingent of far-left Disney employees who started complaining loudly after Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill was signed into law last month.

Though the legislation merely prohibits inappropriate discussions on sex/gender in school, especially for students in the third grade or lower, and though a majority of voters supported the bill, the left has seized on it to smear Florida as a bigoted, homophobic state where you “Don’t Say Gay.”

Disney originally remained silent in the face of the left’s rage, but once its own far-left employees started complaining, the company quickly bent the knee. A month later, Disney now appears to be paying a steep price for its decision to kowtow to radicals at the expense of everyday Americans.

Granted, emerging evidence suggests that the company has always been “woke” but had been hiding it. The evidence includes stunning undercover video footage of Disney execs bragging about how they’re purposefully indoctrinating children with radical LGBT ideology.

What remains to be seen is how the current backlash will — assuming it even does — affect Disney’s financial bottom line. For any protest/boycott to be successful, there must be tangible consequences that are felt viscerally. Disney’s critics hope, for their part, that the company will indeed feel their anger …

Vivek Saxena

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