Two more American companies have seen the light after feeling the heat.
Like Bud Light beer, which found out the hard way that pushing the transgender agenda was bad for business, Tractor Supply and John Deere recently backed off from their DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) programs.
The companies cater primarily to farmers, rural homeowners and suburbanites.
LGBTQ groups are expressing, well, outrage. Human Rights Campaign Vice President Eric Bloem accuses John Deere of bending to “a coordinated attack by far-right extremists on American business.”
National Black Farmers Association President John Boyd, Jr. is demanding the resignation of Deere CEO John May and warns of a boycott.
To which I say: Go ahead, make their day. It will probably work as well as the failed LGBTQ boycott years ago against Chick-fil-A for its president’s “hateful” comments about honoring God’s idea of marriage.
Tractor Supply, in particular, made sure the public knows it has had an epiphany. Here’s an excerpt from their June 27 statement:
“We have heard from customers that we have disappointed them. We have taken this feedback to heart. Going forward, we will ensure our activities and giving ties directly to our business. For instance, this means we will:
“No longer submit data to the Human Rights Campaign
“Refocus our Team Member Engagement Groups on mentoring, networking and supporting the business
“Further focus on rural America priorities including ag education, animal welfare, veteran causes and being a good neighbor and stop sponsoring nonbusiness activities like pride festivals and voting campaigns
“Eliminate DEI roles and retire our current DEI goals while still ensuring a respectful environment
“Withdraw our carbon emission goals and focus on our land and water conservation efforts.”
Wow. Talk about a 180-degree turnaround. A lot of credit goes to Tennessee-based activist Robby Starbuck, who called out the company on his podcast, which reportedly reaches an estimated 475,000 people.
This past week, John Deere issued a similar statement, promising that it would no longer participate in “social or cultural awareness parades, festivals or events.”
Perhaps someone pointed out to them what actually takes place during June Pride parades despite children being in attendance.
John Deere also will review its mandated training materials to make sure they do not contain “socially motivated messages.”
The Deere folks did keep a pledge to “advance the diversity of our organization,” perhaps naively thinking this will satisfy the BLM and alphabet mafia.
The two outdoor product retailers are not alone in their actions. All around the corporate world, DEI is in retreat. Nervous executives realize they can no longer afford to do exotic ideological experiments on their employees and customers without risking consumer pushback.
It’s not just the white, older, rural folks who are fed up. It turns out that straight, white, black, Hispanic and Asian customers of varying ages are not thrilled with diversity quotas, donations to radical groups or forcing employees to parrot progressive thinking.
Robby Starbuck is a 35-year-old American of Cuban background. He told an interviewer that, “It’s not lost on me [that] my kids would benefit from this stuff.”
But he opposes hiring decisions that factor in race and sex as well as other DEI initiatives.
One of the most glaring examples of the pitfalls of DEI may have been exposed during the assassination attempt on former President Trump on July 13.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is facing a House Oversight Committee hearing on Monday over the unbelievably lax security at the Trump rally.
Poor security allowed a 20-year-old “loner” to fire six shots from a nearby roof.
He killed rally attender Cory Comperatore, a husband and father who heroically saved the lives of his wife and two daughters. And the shooter wounded two more men in addition to coming within half an inch of murdering Mr. Trump.
The Secret Service has been pushing DEI for several years. On its website, the agency boasts “When Special Agent Training Class 387 graduated in April of 2021, it marked the first instance in which women trainees outnumbered the men.”
This doesn’t mean women shouldn’t be Secret Service agents, just that combat readiness should trump all other considerations when a president’s life is on the line.
Who would you rather have as a bodyguard? Hulk Hogan or Taylor Swift? Okay, that’s not fair to the highly trained Secret Service women, but still.
In 2022, President Biden appointed Ms. Cheatle. That year, the agency reportedly had a 48 percent employee departure rate. She has aggressively pushed DEI and specifically for more women agents, who have lower physical fitness and strength standards than men.
Ms. Cheatle leapfrogged many more qualified agents to take the top job. Although she was in the Secret Service for 25 years, her main claim to fame may well be that she was the agent assigned to accompany First Lady Jill Biden.
In a DEI world, that may be all you need to take over one of the most consequential agencies of the U.S. government.
This column was first published at the Washington Times.
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