Ron DeSantis gets stony silence from business leaders after complaining to them about 'corporate wokeness'

On Friday, the Miami Heraldreported that Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) gave a speech to the Florida Chamber of Commerce in which he blasted many in the business community for displaying what he called "corporate wokeness" — and got little enthusiasm in response.

This comes as DeSantis has spent months frustrated that business leaders in Florida have not endorsed his attacks on mask mandates that have become a signature culture war for the state's GOP — and as businesses have made clear they want to be excluded from new legislation restricting their ability to mandate masks in workplaces.

"If you're using your power as a corporation, and you're leveraging that to try to advance any ideology, I think it's very dangerous for this country and I'm not just gonna sit idly by," said DeSantis in the speech, delivered at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress resort in Orlando. "Do you want to be more of a political actor or more of a business actor? ... "Don't ever think that caving to the mob is going to save your bacon. That's just going to cause them to come back more."

As reporter Mary Ellen Klas noted, however, businesses did not seem on board with this part of his speech.

"The governor's opposition to vaccine mandates has received a tepid response from businesses across the state, many of whom have used incentives and mandates to restore confidence about the safety of their workplaces for employees and customers," said the report. "The governor received only two rounds of applause during the address, once when he spoke about working to get more goods to market by resolving the pandemic-related supply chain hurdles, and when he said that high schools should offer apprenticeship programs for trade skills."

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