When it comes to corporate activism, “The entire landscape has changed,” said Suzanne Bowdey, senior writer and editorial director for The Washington Stand, during the 2024 Pray Vote Stand Summit. In the last few years, Americans have watched Target push the LGBT agenda on children, Bud Light partner with a man who thinks he’s a woman, and several other corporations prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), as well as environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives.

However, Bowdey added, “In just 18 months, CEOs have become terrified of the people” who have decided enough is enough. “For once, Americans are making companies think twice about their extreme politics,” and the results are undeniable: There is power in the anti-woke Right movement.

Bowdey continued, “[T]he bottom line is, if you’re one of those Americans that’s taking the stand for your values with your dollar, you’re winning.” To address this further, Bowdey was joined in a panel discussion by people who “have been fighting this battle alone for so many years,” only to now be bolstered with enormous support. Alongside celebrating the wins, the panel also discussed what can be done “to keep the momentum [going] that we’ve seen from Tractor Supply, John Deere, Harley-Davidson,” and other companies that have now abandoned their DEI initiatives.

“I was lonely for a very long time,” sighed Justin Danhof, executive vice president of Strive Asset Management. But “I’m not lonely anymore.” Rather, he added, “there are so many great Americans, so many great warriors, that understand that ESG and DEI through corporate America is a threat to … everyday life, and … are now standing up and fighting back.”

But as companies listen to the people calling for change, many have questioned whether or not corporate America will continue to abandon left-wing agendas. Stephen Soukup, vice president of The Political Forum, believes the trend will continue. However, “Sustainability is a tough word for me to wrap my head around, because that’s the excuse that we get from most of corporate wokeness, for lack of a better term.” In other words, Soukup explained, these far-left corporations claim “they all want to make business sustainable,” but “what that means is they want to make it left-wing.”

Yet, he continued, these companies can’t push ESG and DEI agendas as easily anymore because the landscape has changed over the last few months, and people know what these programs really are. “Nobody knew what ESG was,” Soukup emphasized. “Now, everybody knows what ESG is. Now everybody knows what DEI is. [E]verybody knows what the issues we’re facing are,” and “I think that’s important.” Something “we’ve done remarkably successfully is raise awareness about what a small group of elites is doing to our corporate culture, doing to our capital markets, and thereby doing to our entire society,” he added.

Scott Shepard, general counsel and director of the Free Enterprise Project, further insisted that “this is the very beginning of a battle that, to be successful, will have to go on for year after year after year.” If Americans are going to have their way, he noted, it’s important to understand “we’ve got a huge fight ahead of us. And we’re going to have to fight.” Shepard warned that the real objective of these “woke” companies is to “destroy everything so that they can constrain our lives and they can live … as a world noble class controlling our lives. It’s a horrifying combination of feudalism and … fascism that we face.”

Shepard went on to discuss how the “victories” driven by conservative backlash in recent months are more akin to “a good initial scrimmage.” We’re now “on the field,” he said, but we have “to learn how to shoot” and win the game once and for all. Danhof agreed, and he highlighted the fact that “diversity and inclusion are normative goods” and that equity measures are what “led to the death of meritocracy, which is creating corporate mediocracy.”

All this, the panel noted, points to the future of what can be done to continue pushing back against the left-wing agendas organizations have adopted. One tactic that has been used is boycotting. According to Shepard, “Boycotts are fine,” and “the right thing to do if they’re sustainable.” However, “it’s not enough,” he maintained, stressing that conservatives have “got to get in the fight” to obtain long-term success. In the words of Winston Churchill, Shepard contended, “Wars are not won by evacuations.”

Concerning other steps moving forward, Danhof emphasized the importance of everyday interactions. “It starts with conversations” with people, he added. “Talk with the pilot, talk with the manager, talk with the stewardess, talk with the person at your Kroger checkout line. Those conversations are super important because those folks [often] don’t agree with what corporate is doing, but they have no political power unless you empower them.” If conservatives “engage with the people that they see every day,” they will “empower them,” Danhof argued.

Something else “to understand,” Soukup added, “is that Republicans never should have been supportive of business in general.” He continued, “Republicans should be supportive of markets … shareholders … [and] free enterprise,” because “big business has a tendency to consider big business before it considers anything else.” Moving forward, he urged, it’s important to remember that “big business is not our friend.”

Ultimately, the panel agreed that there are many reasons to be optimistic about the future. “I’m as optimistic as I’ve ever been,” said Danhof. And yet, Soukup interjected, “there’s a lot of work left to do.” But allowing big businesses to step over their consumers has “got to stop,” Danhof concluded, “and it starts with you.”