Ramaswamy Vs Cuban – Is Woke Better For Business?

(TotalConservative.com) – Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy appeared on Fox News Sunday this week and criticized woke capitalism while commenting on the plummeting sales of Target and Bud Light after pushing LGBTQ-themes merchandise.

Ramaswamy said their decision to get involved in politics is “bad for business.” He said that “businesses have a purpose,” which is “to provide products and services” as well as “to make a profit unapologetically.” The 2024 GOP candidate pointed out that when businesses venture “into social disputes,” it’s more often than not “bad for business,” citing Target and Bud Light as examples.

Target received a great deal of backlash from conservatives and moderates for releasing an entire line of products in celebration of Pride Month, some of which were marketed toward children. Critics of the company responded by calling for boycotts and Target soon began to lose money. Some stores even responded by moving the Pride displays from the front of their stores to the back, which resulted in criticism from Democrats and liberals.

Prior to the Target incident, Bud Light put a picture of transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney on their beer cans. In response, Republicans across the country accused the company of pandering to woke ideology and promoting gender ideology. Bud Light’s sales also plummeted.

Billionaire Mark Cuban, from the show “Shark Tank,” took a position opposite of Ramaswamy, claiming that the “woke” agenda is actually proving to be positive for business. Cuban said the “top 10 market cap companies” in the country are “considered ‘woke.’”

The so-called “culture war” is one of the central priorities of Ramaswamy’s campaign. Since announcing his bid for the White House, he’s stated multiple times that he believes America is going through “a national identity crisis,” and that rather than fighting over all of these various identity groups, the country needs to find a way to unify under a national identity.

Ramaswamy says he believes companies pandering to identity politics can learn “from their mistakes” and are facing an opportunity to “set their course straight.”