Tag

social justice Archives – Concerned Women for America

Why is He Yelling? Reflections on the 2023 State of the Union Address

By | LBB, News and Events | No Comments

You usually yell when people can’t hear you. Perhaps that is why President Joe Biden spent an hour yelling at the country in his State of the Union Address. No one is listening.

 

Frankly, I fear no one believes him. No one buys the D.C. narrative anymore. Americans are hurting. But you wouldn’t know it from the chest-pounding bloviating in the President’s speech. There is a chasm between the empty words in Washington and the reality that Americans face day in and day out.

 

The President gave lip service to everything from jobs and the economy to healthcare to the “existential threat” of climate change. You have heard of unprecedented problems at the border, but those miraculously disappeared for that hour last night. Instead, the Democrats celebrated their incredible work at the border. Seriously.

 

President Biden even mustered a line or two touting bipartisanship when he has been one of the most radical partisans in history. His shtick almost made him lose control of the floor at one moment when he lied about “Republicans wanting to get rid of Social Security and Medicaid.” The pushback was so strong he had to acknowledge Congress was unanimous in wanting to protect these essential programs. Oh, he kept the pre-written lines about saving the programs from some strawman trying to take it away, but he was forced to admit, “I guess no one is opposing this now.”

 

He had a line about protecting “Roe v. Wade.” It does not make any sense, Roe is already gone, but we all know he was just trying to throw a bone at the radicals among his base. The same was true when he uttered a sentence for LGBTQ+ “rights.” Hearing him yesterday, you would think these was not a big part of the President’s agenda. But it is all a façade. The fact is that President Biden has been the most radically pro-abortion President in history. He even supports the taxpayer funding of abortion, something he opposed for his whole career as something too extreme even for Democrats.

 

His plan to promote abortions in every way possible is immoral and unconstitutional, violating even the most basic principles of federalism. In a recent opinion, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) tries to circumvent federal law to spread the use of the mail to deliver abortion pills.

 

The President has been just as radical on the LGBTQ+ issue. President Biden is pushing for men who self-identify as a woman to be able to compete in women’s and girls’ sports. He is pushing for early, life-altering, and irreversible puberty blockers for children looking to “transition.” He has even mobilized his DOJ to go against those who oppose what he calls “gender-affirming care.”

 

But, again, you wouldn’t know that listening to him scream the speech tonight. Perhaps that is by design. Polls show the President’s disapproval is at 53%. Only 40% of Americans approve of the job he is doing. I suspect no amount of yelling will overcome that.

 

As they say, sometimes actions speak so loudly it is hard to listen to the words being said.

The ABCs of “ESG”

By | ESG, LBB, News and Events | No Comments

You have either heard of it, or you will, but the radical ideology known as “ESG” is harming you.

 

ESG stands for “Environmental, Social, and Governance.” It is a set of standards used to measure, at its core, a company’s “wokeness.” The more woke a company is—think Green New Deal policies, abortion travel policies, and diversity quotas—the better its “ESG score,”  and the more access the company attains for capital, credit, and other financial perks.

 

The economic pressure is real. Companies are increasingly changing internal policies to meet these leftist standards, and the impact is all around us. Here are the top three areas of concern:

 

Asset Management: Many companies offer investment portfolios that are ESG-friendly to bolster businesses that are sufficiently woke. And it does not stop with private companies. The Biden Department of Labor, for example, is encouraging fiduciaries for retirement plans and pensions “to consider climate change and other environmental, social, and governance factors when they select retirement investments and exercise shareholder rights, such as proxy voting.” Without even knowing it, shareholders who are not careful support woke companies that hate their values and punish the companies that they support. It is no matter that ESG-focused investments have many times resulted in a worse economic return for shareholders. Nor are financial firms very concerned about enforcing ESG in China as long as the investment there is profitable.

 

Banking: Poorly scored companies risk experiencing reduced or eliminated access to capital and credit. If your bank fully embraces the ESG model and you want a loan, it will look at your business not only for its pecuniary value but also for its alignment with ESG. Your business may be a “bad” investment, no matter how well it does financially. Does your business provide abortion coverage? Does it support LGBTQ+ causes? Does your business align with the Black Lives Matter idea of “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” (DEI)? Unless there are abortion travel policies or race quotas, expect low marks. An ESG-controlled economy means capital withheld from profitmaking business activity and capital funneled to underperforming business activity. Left unchecked, the end result is that all American companies—including Main Street small businesses—are weak and woke.

 

Consumers: ESG reinforces corporate “wokeism.” The consequence is a culture that devalues the unborn, commodifies women and sex, harms children through indoctrination, etc., and also punishes any consumer who does not show allegiance to this radical, leftist ideology.

 

What can be done? Put the pressure back on the financial institutions rather than the other way around. We support states that are fighting back by barring state pension funds from considering ESG factors in investment decisions. If you are a shareholder, pay attention to your vote. If you have a relationship with your bank, learn their views on ESG. And if you are a consumer, as best you can, pursue alternative options to woke companies.