Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) announced new actions this week that his administration is taking to protect the state of Florida from environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) influence.
DeSantis told Fox News host Tucker Carlson that ESG was really a way for “these kind of masters of the universe” to achieve “through economic power what they cannot achieve at the ballot box,” and that he intends to put a stop to it.
“First, we’re going to do through Florida’s state pension system a flat ban on any type of ESG. And, as you say, they like to wiggle around. It’s basically a way for them to do politics,” DeSantis said. “So, we’re going to make sure that fiduciary duty is defined very clearly and that they stick to that.”
We “also want to provide protections for people in the financial marketplace from being discriminated against based on ideology. I mean, we have seen Wall Street banks discriminate against contractors who are involved in helping us against illegal immigration or against firearm manufacturers, things they don’t like,” DeSantis continued. “And it’s really an end-run around democracy, where they’re trying to impose these things. And, here in Florida, I want to be governed by the values of Destin [city in Florida], not the values of Davos.”
DeSantis said that “woke employees” inside companies are pushing ESG, which essentially amounts to inmates running the asylum.
“I do think there’s some of these CEOs, Tucker, who really like to exert power over the rest of us. And that’s what we’re doing. It’ll be a disaster for our economy, of course, with [what] we have seen with the energy. But to have the economy politicized this way, that’s a recipe for disaster,” DeSantis continued. “But then, also, it takes power away from the American people and lodges it into these international corporate titans. And that’s not, I think, what our Founding Fathers ever intended.”
DeSantis added that he believes that other states will follow what he is doing in Florida and that he wants to get other conservative states to come together and form a voting bloc to amplify their combined power.
“So, I would urge all my fellow governors around the country, hell, Republican or Democrat, let’s band together and let’s fight back against this, so we can keep power to the people,” DeSantis continued.
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