After the 2020 election businesses promised to halt funding of politicians who backed the the insurrection of January 6 and attempts to overturn the election results. However, some of these corporations have resumed political donating despite the continuous onslaught on American democracy. An opinion by David Driesen and Eric W. Orts published by The Hill argues why autocracy is bad for business. Here is an excerpt:

Republicans are carrying out an authoritarian style assault on our democracy, not just by making voting difficult, but more chillingly, by seizing the power needed to falsify election results. 

They are taking power away from bipartisan commissions and elected secretaries of state and placing it in the hands of supporters willing to reject voters’ choices. Arizona is moving to strip its secretary of state of the power to defend elections against partisan lawsuits and Georgia has already removed its secretary of state from the state election board and authorized legislative takeovers of bipartisan local election boards. Furthermore, bills pending in 24 states seek to limit judicial independence, having learned from former President Donald Trump’s numerous losses in court that an honest judiciary can impede efforts to steal elections.

Autocracy is bad for business, and companies financing politicians supporting this attack on democracy while verbally opposing restrictive voting laws should rethink their strategy. They should no longer treat their response to efforts to undermine democracy as a mere exercise in public relations — signaling their belief in diversity to customers and employees while continuing to finance Republicans in hopes of obtaining lower corporate taxes and weaker regulation. Trying to play both sides in this way underestimates the threat the GOP’s approach poses to democracy and to corporate interests. Recent international experience shows that seizing control of electoral machinery can facilitate an autocrat’s rise to power, leading to the ruin of democracy. And crumbling democracies are not places where companies can flourish.

Read the full article here.