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Tony Katz:

Anytime we say no to bigotry. We are better off and DEI is bigotry. So, what happened to Tractor Supply? Is, I mean, maybe it was the recognition of it? Maybe they just realized it was bad for business? It was on June 6th. There was a guy named Robby Starbuck posting a message saying it’s time to expose Tractor Supply.

And he lays out these complaints about stances taken by the company, from a warehouse displaying pride flags to the CEO promoting the COVID-19 vaccine. So, people who are shopping at Tractor Supply are very often on the political right, they’re like, what in the world is all of this? And so, Tractor Supply said diversity, equity, inclusion are over. And you say to me, “Ohh, so, they were pressured into it?” Yeah, see the people who taught us that boycotts work.

Tony Katz:

I didn’t like boycotts. I’m not a fan of them. Of course, people choose with their pocketbooks, and they vote with their feet. You don’t like it in some place, you head somewhere else. But I don’t like the idea of boycotts and cancel culture or whatever it is people want to call it. But you showed us it was the only way. So we did it. And we’re having success. And you know what happens when you see success? You do it again. You do it again.

Tony Katz:

Now the argument here should be why did they do it to begin with? And not just because maybe they’ve got a clientele that would lend itself to the political right. They did it because of fear. As all the vast majority of these groups do. You can’t say all. Some people they do now. Now they do it out of fear as well, for fear of not doing it. They do it out of fear because they don’t want to be told that they’re not good, or they’re not kind or they’re not woke. They don’t want to be questioned about whether or not they really care about people of color, whatever it is they the terminology is today.

Tony Katz:

So, they do it. Like the city of Indianapolis. The city of Indianapolis is more interested in DEI and then they are in in the city succeeding then they are in handling homelessness that they are in in bringing more opportunities to downtown now.

Representative Joe Hogsett

Source: CQ Archive / Getty

Tony Katz:

We’ve seen some things happen in downtown. Yes, Thrilled. Overjoyed. Any of it from this City – County Council, no. Any of this from this mayor, no. The only thing this mayor has been able to get accomplished, and he did not get the WWE accomplished. Give no credit to Joe Hogsett. He should get credit where it is due. But not where it is not. He did not bring the WWE. These were conversations with the Indiana Sports Corp and others. These people are professionals and they do what they do very, very well. I would argue they do it in spite of whatever is happening with the so-called leadership. The only thing Joe Hogsett has been able to do is let the city burn during a riot. Let people get killed during a riot, let businesses get destroyed during a riot and tell a guy who wanted to build in a stadium in downtown kiss off we’re gonna go with an unnamed group and no guarantees of a stadium.

Pedestrians walk past smashed windows in the Salesforce...

Source: SOPA Images / Getty

Tony Katz:

Those are the only things that Joe Hogsett has done. That’s the record. I didn’t make anything up, stated it exactly the way that that it is. Exactly the way that it is. But they have an office of DEI. Why? Well, we have to prove how much we care. They have a weirdway of caring. Really strange. Of course, when you take a look at Indianapolis and all the people who wrote checks to Black Lives Matter, those checks were “Please don’t hurt me checks.” They were buying their freedom. They were buying their goodness. They’re not actually good. They caved to a mob that threatened them.

The fourth day of unrest in Minneapolis after the death of George Floyd in police custody

Source: Star Tribune via Getty Images / Getty

Tony Katz:

Tractor Supply is amongst that very long list. But Tractor Supply should have recognized, like all businesses should recognize, like all colleges and universities should recognize, that DEI is outright bigotry. Purdue, IU, Marian and Ball State… it should all be ended. For whatever programs they have, they should be ended. Stop promoting bigotry. It’s not kindness. It’s not love. It is bigotry. It is hate.

Stop the hate sign.Vector illustration isolated on a white background.

Source: Irina Kurta / Getty

You realize how much the things have shifted. This is a conversation about strength. And who actually has it? This is a conversation about who can move the needle. When DEI, after three weeks of a bunch of tweets, says we’ll change. It’s not so much that the right should be declaring victory, although they will. It is the left that should be saying “Oh dear Lord. What happened to our power base? What happened to our ability to make people afraid? Where now will we be able to implement the fear to get our desires?”

President Biden Delivers State Of The Union Address

Source: Pool / Getty

Tony Katz:

Now you say to me, “Tony, shouldn’t we have a society where nobody’s afraid of anybody else?” Yes. Nothing but agreement from me right there. But that isn’t what we have. If you want to understand the real frustration of the political right to the point where they elect Donald Trump to begin with, it is the idea of fighting.

US-VOTE-POLITICS-TRUMP-RALLY

Source: JIM WATSON / Getty

Tony concludes:

And the total lack of fighting that took place from the political right for multiple decades. While Bill Kristol was telling you join me on the cruise, he wasn’t fighting. There was no willingness to go for the jugular. The Tea Party. Was the first real foray that any of us can get into regarding fighting but the Tea Party, which I was a starter of was trying to fight in a more older school style. We were trying to persuade; we were trying to engage. We were going to show up. We were going to have voice. Today’s fight is all about Nah, let’s punch. I think you needed one to get to the next. And they see Trump as a guy willing to punch, and that’s why they’re so supportive. Now, that doesn’t mean that it’s perfect, and it doesn’t mean that it won’t lead to other troubles in other places. Persuasion is still the name of the game, but when you get punched in the face over and over and over and over and over and over again, it is not a valuable trait to keep getting punched. We in America support the guy that punches back. We will respect the person who turns the other cheek, but we will equally if not more, respect the person who after turning the other cheek for amount of time, says “That’s it.” And takes control of their life, and that for a lot of people is Trump. And this pushback regarding DEI, this pushback on bigotry and on hate, is more of the fighting back and it’s working. It just has to infuriate the left. Because they’re used to it only working for them. Good move by Tractor Supply. Those are the moves we should see from Purdue and IU and every other school. I’d say let’s see it from Indianapolis, but you won’t. 

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