The nation’s largest lender, JPMorgan Chase & Co., is set to resume political donations after pausing them in the wake of the Capitol incursion — but will maintain a freeze on donations to lawmakers who objected to the certification of the 2020 election.
Of course, like much of the narrative surrounding the Jan. 6 riot, this move is reliant upon the notion that objecting to the election is the same as barging into the Capitol in the middle of official proceedings with a motley crew of disgruntled voters and a far-left activist or two.
According to an internal memo obtained by Reuters, JPMorgan’s PAC will not donate to a “handful” of the 147 Republican lawmakers who voted to overturn the results of the 2020 election in January.
The pause will last through the 2022 midterm elections.
I have no memory of JPMorgan or anyone else ending donations to the many vocal and prominent lawmakers who told us for years that the 2016 election was illegitimate, do you?
“Democracy, by its nature, requires active participation, compromise, and engaging with people with opposing views,” the bank wrote to justify not engaging with people with opposing views.
JPMorgan did not specify which of the lawmakers who objected to the election certification it will not be supporting.
Now, it’s hard not to note that JPMorgan doesn’t have all that much to gain by publicly slighting conservatives. The Wall Street giant hardly needed to win the approval of the liberals who anathematized those 147 Republicans.
But it could have quite a bit to lose.
Reuters pointed out that the 147 lawmakers include House Finance Committee members Blaine Luetkemeyer and Lee Zeldin and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
This just goes to show how establishment elites will go out of their way to spite conservatives. The pro-Trump movement has many enemies in corporate America who have warmly embraced progressive radicalism.
In case you think I’m off base, just consider that JPMorgan also said it will be donating to lawmakers who are “active on issues the bank considers ‘moral and economic imperatives for our country,’ such as addressing the racial wealth gap, education and criminal justice reform.”
In today’s political climate, this is a thinly veiled indicator that the company is buying into the Democratic Party’s increasingly progressive agenda.
Indeed, although 60 percent of the $600,300 it spent on federal candidates during the previous election cycle went to Republicans and the rest to Democrats, Reuters noted that this is “a mix that is likely to swing further to the left as the bank supports a broader range of social and economic issues.”
This is a painfully obvious political move that prioritizes partisan preening over the best interests of the American people and the spirit of democracy the company took it upon itself to uphold.
In the battles being fought in our nation in the wake of Jan. 6 and the contested 2020 election, corporate America has very clearly picked a side.
As if the fawning statements on George Floyd riots and the annual advertising campaigns for “Pride Month” left any doubt, JPMorgan has given us a pretty clear idea of whom boardrooms are most anxious to please — and whom they’ll turn their backs on without thinking twice.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.