HOME DEPOT Archives - Dr. Rich Swier

At long last, some of the nation’s largest companies are easing mask mandates at their store locations. As COVID-19 cases continue to decline, more and more people feel ready to return to normal life – and these companies are leading the corporate charge to support the reopening of America.

Companies like Walmart (1.33), Costco (2.33), Publix (2.33), and Trader Joe’s (2.67) were some of the first to stop requiring customers to wear masks. Since then, others like Chipotle (2.33), Target (1.50), Starbucks (1.17), and CVS (3.72) followed suit, dropping the mask requirement for customers who have been vaccinated.

None of these companies have announced any plans to check their customers’ vaccination status. We’re grateful they won’t be acting like the COVID police, but are instead allowing people to use their best judgment. After all, getting back to normal means not having to constantly think about pandemic measures. After a year of restrictions, letting people make their own decisions is the right move.

Of course, all of the above companies must defer to state and local law. Twenty-two states have not yet lifted their mask requirements for businesses. And some companies, like Home Depot (3.47) and Gap (2.00), continue to require masks regardless of local regulations. As cases continue to drop nationwide, these states and companies should be encouraged to ease their mask mandates to help send the message that pre-pandemic life is on the way.

When it comes to employees at these companies, the picture is more complicated – but still encouraging. Target, for example, no longer requires fully vaccinated employees to wear masks, but CVS and Chipotle still require masks for their staff no matter what. Employers should end mask mandates for their employees as soon as reasonably possible so that their employees can also return to normal life.

Companies nationwide are making good progress on ending mask requirements. They should keep it up and be leaders in helping America return to normal.

In late July, Google CEO Sundar Pichai told Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) that Google would “conduct ourselves in a neutral way” with regards to the November election. This claim should be met with skepticism by conservatives given that Google joins Facebook and Apple — whose chief executives testified to Congress with Pichai — in having a perfectly liberal corporate culture.

2ndVote ranks Big Tech corporations such as Facebook, Apple, and Google at 1.00 out of 5.00 on the political scale, which means that their corporate actions, cultures, and political donations are explicitly liberal. Amazon is a little better, at 1.29. As a non-profit, 2ndVote can’t and won’t tell these companies which candidates to support — but we will remind Facebook and Apple that their support for the Marxist Black Lives Matter organization didn’t protect them from Democrats’ attacks at the hearing.

These corporations are only hurting themselves by engaging in politics. First, they are alienating millions of potential customers. Second, they are doing so without reward from their supposed liberal allies — and the aforementioned congressional critiques are nothing compared to what the Obama administration did to several Big Tech companies.

Weeks before President Donald Trump took office, the Obama administration sued multiple technology firms for alleged discrimination. The lawsuit did not cite actual cases of employee discrimination but instead used statistical differences between the number of minorities who applied for a job versus the number hired. It did not matter that Google was the first corporate donor to President Barack Obama’s presidential foundation – their support for a left-leaning candidate could not save them from such an unjust lawsuit.

No matter how liberal Big Tech tries to be, they will never fully satisfy the left. Businesses like Home Depot (1.90), Twitter (2.14), and Starbucks (1.14) have also repeatedly tried and failed to make the left happy by endorsing social justice ideologies like abortion and gun control.

Starbucks in particular has been a huge supporter of LGBT rights. That did not stop the left from shaming Starbucks into closing 8,000 of its locations after a Philadelphia store manager asked two loitering customers – who happened to be black – to leave.

It’s past time for Big Tech to go neutral like Google CEO Sundar Pichai promised when he said their search engine would not favor Democratic nominee Joe Biden. Big Tech should appeal to everyone’s political preferences instead of supporting left-leaning candidates, especially when it’s clear these actions gain them no favors with…well, anyone.

RELATED VIDEO: Tucker Carlson on big tech election rigging.