Compelled derisking through targeted fomented outrage

Dan Drezner aptly identifies a phenomenon at work in our current moment, in the context of ESG, but equally applicable to the Target outrage and any arena the demagogues focus their rhetoric.

Its all about creating a moral panic.

One could argue that even if anti-ESG Republicans have failed to enact legislation limiting ESG policies, they have succeeded in the more postmodern task of turning ESG into a partisan political football akin to critical race theory (CRT). Republicans have been fond of spotting CRT where it does not exist, thereby forcing school districts and universities to engage in what amounts to a de-risking project designed to reduce CRT’s profile.


The corporate logic of shutting up about ESG makes sense. Why rile up a political firestorm if it’s unnecessary?

Is the GOP’s success in getting firms to stay quieter about ESG a prelude to reversals of policy? That is clearly the goal, but here is where the IRA’s incentives and shifts in public opinion seem far more powerful. Even if the GOP succeeds in riling up a moral panic within its base, this seems like a battle in which the tide is clearly heading in one direction.

But I could be wrong. That is the thing about policy debates in this decade. They do not revolve around policy disputes, or even political disputes. They revolve around whether one party can sufficiently mobilize its supporters to be able to force other actors to engage in de-risking behavior. And in this kind of ideological battle, what matters is not the actual outrage but the perceived outrage by corporate officers.



The Postmodern Battle over ESG

 

Worked on Starbucks




I have to say that this Elon elevated response just calls for the Onion treatment. But I will resist