Jim Jordan Threatened Twitter Board After Musk Made Buyout Offer
Credit: Getty Images
April 26, 2022

Republicans are definitely fine with the fascism involved in using the power of the state to threaten corporations in order to bend them to their will. Here we have Jim Jordan thugging his way into Twitter's boardroom after Elon Musk announced he had funding for Musk's buyout of Twitter, via Media Matters.

Matthew Gertz obtained a letter signed by Jordan and 18 other Republicans ordering Twitter to preserve all records concerning Elon Musk's takeover bid and subsequent tender offer. Ordering the preservation of records is Jordan's way of letting Twitter know they'd best bend the knee to Elon Musk or face a plethora of Congressional investigations, should Republicans win enough seats to take over the majority in the House of Representatives (something we all should be 100% invested in preventing, by the way).

Jordan is just following the blueprint sent forth by Trump for how to use government power to browbeat corporations, as Gertz points out.

GOP leaders have picked up where Trump left off, browbeating large corporations to get them to fall in line with the right’s political interests. Congressional Republicans have already threatened retribution against companies that opposed Georgia’s voter suppression law and cooperated with the congressional investigation into the January 6 insurrection. And on the same day House Republicans sent their letter to Twitter’s board, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law retaliating against Disney for its criticism of the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” education law.

This is fascism. Here's Mussolini on the topic of the relationship between the state and corporations: "The Fascist State lays claim to rule in the economic field no less than in others; it makes its action felt throughout the length and breadth of the country by means of its corporate, social, and educational institutions, and all the political, economic, and spiritual forces of the nation, organised in their respective associations, circulate within the State."

Republicans believe that it is their right and prerogative to use the power of the state to dictate corporate decisions. They should never, ever be given the power to actually do it.

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