Tell the MLB, strike three. You’re out!

By: Lisa Van Houten

 

As baseball legend Yogi Berra once quipped: “The future ain’t what it used to be.”

We are fast becoming a nation that is no longer governed “of the people, by the people, and for the people,” but rather ruled by the oligarchs of corporate America.  In recent years we’ve seen sports leagues and big business wield their coercive power to bring pressure against the will of the people and their elected representatives to quash everything from bathroom bills that would’ve protected women and girls to fetal heartbeat bills that would limit abortion.  Using mafia-like tactics, left-leaning corporations and entities such as the NBA or the NCAA have threatened to bring economic harm to states who pass legislation that these leftists disagree with.  “Nice state economy you got here; it’d be a shame if something happened to it.”

The Left has even infiltrated America’s quintessential pastime – baseball.  At least we still have apple pie; the woke mob can’t ruin that. The latest to join the growing list of woke tyrants is Major League Baseball (MLB), which has pulled the All Star Game from Georgia because of the state’s new election law, which seeks to establish election integrity.  MLB’s action will be a loss to the state of an estimated $100 million and countless jobs.

Regurgitating Democrat’s talking points which falsely label the Georgia law as “voter suppression,” baseball commissioner Rob Manfred issued a statement condemning the law: “I have decided that the best way to demonstrate our values as a sport is by relocating this year’s All-Star Game and MLB Draft.  Major League Baseball fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box….”  Yet in Manfred’s accusatory statement, he never once addresses which part of Georgia’s new law he thinks restricts voting rights.   That’s because it doesn’t restrict voting; the law only restricts fraudulent voting. Their hypocrisy knows no bounds; the MLB, as well as other Atlanta-based corporations such as Coca-Cola and Delta Airlines critical of the Georgian law, claim the voter ID requirement in the bill equals “voter suppression” – yet try to board a Delta flight or even buy baseball tickets or a beer at the stadium without one. Even Coca-Cola requires ID to attend investors meetings.

Manfred sanctimoniously lectures about “values” and “rights,” even as the MLB has cozied up to Communist China and Cuba – nations which don’t even allow free elections.  Do the grievous human rights abuses in these repressive regimes “demonstrate the values” of the MLB?  Incredibly, the day before Manfred announced they were pulling the All Star Game out of Georgia, the MLB expanded a lucrative streaming contract with the Chinese telecommunications company, Tencent, which, according to Senator Marco Rubio, is tied to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and helps the CCP hunt down and silence dissidents.  Do the MLB’s “values” apply to the brutal dictatorship of Cuba where the MLB recently gave tactic approval to the totalitarian regime by holding a ball game there – even as numerous Cuban baseball players have fled Cuba to find freedom in the US.  So it’s okay to play ball in communist Cuba, but not Georgia.

Rubio excoriated the MLB for their gross hypocrisy:  “… Since Major League Baseball now appears eager to use its “platform” to demonstrate “unwavering support” for fundamental human rights, will you cease your relationship with the Chinese Government, which at this very moment is committing genocide against the Uyghurs Muslims in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR)? …

I am under no illusion that Major League Baseball will sacrifice business revenue on behalf of its alleged corporate values. To do so would require a personal sacrifice, as opposed to the woke corporate virtue signaling of moving the All-Star Game from Atlanta.”

So, what’s in this new Georgian law that has the Left in such an uproar?  Is it really “Jim Crow 2.0” as Democrats claim?

Georgia’s new law extends early voting and voting hours, provides new voting machines and personnel for voting precincts with more than 2,000 residents, aims to improve the accuracy of the state’s voter rolls, restricts campaign workers from handing out food or drink to voters waiting in line at polling places, and requires voter identification on absentee ballots. In addition, remember on election night 2020 (not that you could forget), when vote counting suddenly and simultaneously stopped in key states for seemingly no reason when it appeared as if Trump would win?  This new law in Georgia will prohibit the interruption of election night vote tabulation.

Obviously, these are all commonsense policies which will help ensure a fair election.  Yet Democrats not only adamantly oppose them, but have been blatantly lying about what the Georgian law states.  Even the liberal Washington Post gave President Biden “Four Pinocchio’s” for his flagrant lies and misrepresentations of the law, as he described it “Jim Crow on steroids.”

The idea that showing ID in order to vote equates to the truly racist practices in our nation’s past which disenfranchised Black Americans, is ridiculous.  As Family Research Council’s Ken Blackwell stated: “Those of us whose families lived under Jim Crow segregation decades ago, and also who in modern times have the everyday experience of pulling out photo identification for all sorts of common activities like checking into a hotel or getting medicine, find that comparison appalling.”

Indeed, all Americans are required to show identification to engage in a plethora of activities; voting should be at the top of that list.  And to ensure that it’s not restrictive, Georgia’s new election law provides free state-issued IDs for state citizens who don’t have a driver’s license or ID.  Numerous national polls indicate overwhelming support for voter identification.  As FRC reported: “voters of all races agree: a clear majority of white voters (74 percent), black voters (69 percent), and other minority voters (82 percent) agree with voter ID laws. Only the most committed leftists think ID requirements to vote are discriminatory.”

Yet, in actuality, Democrats don’t oppose such laws because they think they’re discriminatory, rather because they know they will ensure fair elections.  The Georgia law doesn’t suppress voting, but it does suppress cheating – and that’s why Democrats are aligning with leftist corporations to try to squelch such laws. 

States have an obligation to ensure election integrity and voters should be confident that their vote isn’t being diluted by thousands of illegal votes.  However, Leftists are pulling no punches in targeting Georgia and labeling their newly passed election law as “racist” in order to intimidate other states from enacting similar laws.  If Democrats succeed, it helps lays the groundwork for HR 1, a federal takeover of elections, which would undo election integrity measures, such as those in Georgia.

How can we stop the Left’s power grab?  To begin with, we need every red state to enact voter integrity laws as Georgia has done and not be intimidated by the coercive threats of the mob enforcers within Corporate America.

For once, Republican leadership didn’t blink in this game of chicken.  Georgia Governor Kemp didn’t give in to corporate America’s bully tactics, but instead pushed back: “Today, @MLB caved to fear, political opportunism, and liberal lies. Georgians – and all Americans – should fully understand what the MLB’s knee-jerk decision means: cancel culture and woke political activists are coming for every aspect of your life, sports included. If the left doesn’t agree with you, facts and the truth do not matter.

“This attack on our state is the direct result of repeated lies from Joe Biden and Stacey Abrams about a bill that expands access to the ballot box and ensures the integrity of our elections.  I will not back down. Georgians will not be bullied. We will continue to stand up for secure, accessible, fair elections.” 

In addition, while the Left is busy virtue-signaling, conservatives need to live out their virtues – even if its inconvenient or hurts us in the pocketbook.  Stephen Soukup, author of the book “The Dictatorship of Woke Capital: How Political Correctness Captured Big Business” states: “If we think about how this happened, how we got to this position, it’s because activist shareholders began pressuring companies 10, 15, even 20 years ago to do what the activists wanted.  And as is always the case, the squeaky wheel gets the grease.”

The 74+ million who voted for Trump would not be ignored by Corporate America if they truly made their voices heard.  Here is a good place to start; this is the list of sponsors of the MLB.  74 million would be a lot of customers to lose for Taco Bell or Lysol, for example.  A quick internet search, (I recommend the search engine www.duckduckgo.com rather than the leftist-ally Google), will give you the corporate telephone number of the companies listed.

Also, as Donald Trump has urged, boycott Major League Baseball.  Call the MLB and let them know you will not support an entity which punishes states for seeking to ensure fair elections. While you’re calling, tell them if they truly want to show concern for human rights, they should cut ties with China.  Call the MLB at: 1-212-485-3444 or email: mlbexecutiverelations@website.mlb.com

Perhaps empty seats in the stands will wake up the woke MLB; for as Yogi Berra pointed out: “If the people don’t want to come out to the ballpark, nobody’s going to stop them.”

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