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Serious question: Who died and made these woke corporations ruler of all, the veritable masters of the universe? Who made them the arbiters of right and wrong? Since when do they get to decide what is an acceptable form of free speech or what election laws should or should not get passed in this country? If you're not half asleep, perhaps you've noticed this dynamic: we are rapidly shifting into a government of, by and for the corporations, with our Constitution being secondary to the corporations' arbitrary, woke one.

Corporations, many of which no longer consider themselves American companies but more global ones, composed of "citizens of the world," have decided to enforce their view of the world onto almost every subject. They don't consider the damage their decision-making does to Main Street, only how much they can line their own pockets — even if they have to use foreign slave labor to do it.

Now they arrogantly lecture us as though they were paragons of moral uprightness. More than 100 corporate leaders met over this past weekend, from companies such as United Airlines, American Airlines, AMC Theaters, Levi Strauss, and others to discuss their collective opposition to voter integrity laws.

One reason we have seen so much more of this woke behavior over the last few years is that we are seeing more and more of the indoctrinated youth coming of age after their "educations" in indoctrination centers of higher learning. We can see that influence as they enter the workforce, deciding the rest of the world must be compelled to fit their weird and warped views — ergo the explosion of woke corporatism.

But one of the reasons these corporations feel so empowered is because many on the Right have bought into the idea that corporatism and capitalism are one and the same. They are not. Corporatism, with its crony capitalism, market manipulation and rigging, and incestuous relationship with big government, has nothing to do with free market capitalism.

The monopolistic corporate tech companies, as I and others have noted, are a further bastardization of the free market. No matter how many times libertarians intone, "But we can't do nuttin' about them cause they're private companies" it won't change the fact that things just don't work the way they assume.

We can't have free-market capitalism and competition when monopolies dominate the marketplace. The prevailing dynamic, in fact, is the antithesis of capitalism — but most, if not all libertarians are unable to understand that. Perhaps it is corporate bucks clouding their judgment or, possibly, too much weed. Maybe it's both.

The fact is Democrats and Swampy Republicans do love them some corporatism. I mean, ain't it a grand setup? The ruling class protects its crony corporatists and helps rig the game for them — all of which leads to more bucks in their campaign coffers, while at the same time, the ruling class statists are spared the bother of having to make a full-on frontal assault on Americans' constitutional rights. All as you have many "conservatives" and libertarians wringing their hands saying we can't do anything about it because "Muh private corporations."

It really is a beautiful dynamic for the statists. Why not use the massive corporate tools that touch every aspect of life to censor and reshape culture and society? Why wake Americans from their slumber with drastic measures when they can be lulled to sleep by private corporations doing the statists' work? It's not like stormtroopers are kicking in doors in the middle of the night, but regardless, freedom is dying under corporate rule.

Of course this is how statists have operated in America for quite some time. Don't do away with the Constitution when in fact you can sneak in an administrative state without anyone really noticing. Why shred the Bill of Rights in public when you can accomplish the same thing by allowing woke corporations to back door fascism?

Republicans and conservatives need to get righteous on the issue: Woke corporations aren't our friends and we should stop acting like they are. If they want to play games with our rights, we should beat them like rented mules when it comes to their bottom line. Tax breaks? Gone. Boycotts? Across the board. Banning importation of goods made by slave labor? Mmmhmm. That would be delicious and hit hundreds of corporations right where it hurts on the P&L sheet. They want to rumble, let's rumble.

And for any Republican or conservative who can't come to grips with what is happening, any one of them who doesn't know what the stakes are or what time it is in American history, hit the road. Your naïvete is a danger to us all.
About the Author:
Ned Ryun is a former presidential writer for George W. Bush and the founder and CEO of American Majority. You can find him on Twitter @nedryun.