If you’ve been in the conservative movement long enough, getting canceled is almost inevitable. At some point, your beliefs about faith, the climate, marriage, abortion, or transgenderism will put you crosswise with America’s woke CEOs, and a notice will arrive in your inbox: You’ve been dropped. For some, that’s a badge of honor. For others, it’s a monumental headache. Either way, finding a vendor who won’t take their radical politics out on clients has never been harder. Fortunately for today’s counter-culturists, there’s help.

For everyone who’s felt like choosing a business partner, merchant, or bank is like walking through a minefield blind, the 1792 Exchange is about to make life easier. The group’s new database, released Tuesday, scores more than 1,000 companies on how likely they are to cut ties with consumers over their beliefs. In their Spotlight Report: Corporate Bias Ratings, each business is graded on the low, medium, or high likelihood that conservatives will be canceled, denied service, or pressured to compromise based on their “political and religious views.”

It should be a powerful weapon in the hands of conservatives and faith-based groups, who’ve not only started doing battle with corporate activism on the state and shareholder levels but who are also desperately in need of safe, neutral spaces in today’s marketplace. “We want Americans to understand where they are truly free to conduct business,” the exchange’s president and movement veteran Paul Fitzpatrick said in a statement. This project, he explained, is the “result of countless hours investigating ‘woke’ corporate bias against religious expression, freedom of speech, and free enterprise.”

Fitzpatrick insists the goal is two-fold. First, “to help Americans understand the risks present with certain corporations and give them a voice when they encounter this type of discrimination.” But just as importantly (and maybe more so), the desired outcome is “for the ‘high risk’ companies, especially public ones, to take notice, change their behavior, and serve all customers — regardless of ideology.”

Finding these Fortune 500 pressure points has become a more urgent priority for conservatives, who finally found a champion in corporate giant-killers like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) and Georgia Governor Brian Kemp (R). Now, what was once a lonely crusade for a handful of activists has turned into a full-blown grassroots effort to force Big Business to abandon its hyper-politicized agenda.

For longtime targets of the Left, like Family Research Council, the 1792 Exchange’s report came as welcome news. In the last couple of years, FRC has been dropped or had its contracts revoked by MobileCause (September 2020), Soundcloud (Fall 2020), Sprout Social (Fall 2020), Buffer (September 2021), and ContentCal (October 2021) — all either implicitly or explicitly for holding biblical views. Now, as more companies lean into radical ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) investing, faith-based organizations are even more at risk.

“When corporations are politicized,” Fitzpatrick told The Washington Stand, “it harms shareholders, America’s retirement savings, makes energy and food more expensive and more scarce, and makes our nation less safe. We want to help U.S. corporations be more profitable and push back against activists trying to leverage them. To do so, they must treat their customers, employees, vendors, and communities with respect.”

Progressives have tried to capture the last conservative institution — corporations — to “change our culture and economy in ways they couldn’t achieve through Congress or the courts,” Fitzpatrick insisted. But those scales may finally be tipping, thanks to a Republican Party no longer willing to fund the Left’s war on their values. This latest development puts businesses’ virtue signalers on notice: Americans won’t rest until all viewpoints have a seat at the table.

Until then, “we want to equip you to protect yourself,” Fitzpatrick says, “whether you’re running a small business, nonprofit, or your family.”

AUTHOR

Suzanne Bowdey

Suzanne Bowdey serves as editorial director and senior writer at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved. The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.