The Unlikely Consensus: Disney’s Critics Are Now Everywhere

Earlier this month, after President Donald Trump eliminated diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs from the federal government, The Walt Disney Company chose to follow suit, eliminating any mention of DEI from its quarterly report and removing trigger warnings from films on Disney+.

Disney was not alone in removing its DEI programs. Other corporate giants, such as Amazon, Target, Google, and John Deere, followed suit.

The move by Disney was meant to quell talk of the company having “gone woke,” and hopefully appeal to a right-leaning audience, which it appears the majority of the country has become. Instead, Disney managed to anger everyone.

According to a new Harris Poll, 38 percent of Americans have stopped shopping or frequenting corporations that don’t align with their political views. The respondents in the poll specifically mentioned Target and Disney as two companies that many Americans believed don’t align with their values.

During its feud with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, many right-leaning voters abandoned Disney, claiming that the company had moved away from Walt’s original vision. Based on the survey results, it appears that many of them are not planning on returning to Disney, even after the company eliminated its DEI programs and buried the hatchet with DeSantis.

The news gets even worse for Disney. According to the poll, 45 percent of Democrats and 50 percent of African Americans would not support a company that doesn’t align with their values.

Harris Poll CEO John Gerzema told Axios:

It seemed like consumers are just fatigued by all this shifting politics in their brands. Instead of maybe standing in the checkout line, they’re just sort of checking out. 

To many, Disney’s changing politics is a betrayal and capitulation to the current administration. This is, of course, the same company that went to war in Florida over the state’s Parental Rights in Education Act, known by its critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

The lesson that Disney seemed to have learned from that fight is that politics is bad for business, but Disney could soon realize that flip-flopping is even worse. With so many Americans putting their wallets where the politics are and with Disney angering everyone, it could be a long few years in the Mouse House.