Letter to the editor: Old white men

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Some of my best friends are old white men. I love and live with one. These old white guys are my friends because they’re enlightened, have moved thoughtfully out of the last century. 

Then there’s old white men like Mitch McConnell, known for his blatant hypocrisy, telling corporations to keep out of politics (except to give him money.) He’s angry because executives publicly denounced Georgia’s restrictive voting laws. 

Several hundred companies and executives signed a statement opposing any discriminatory legislation. These execs expressed deep concern for preserving democracy, calling this legislation a threat to democracy and dangerous. 



This got me thinking. Admirable as this attitude is, we know that 40 percent of the electorate in 2020 was from the millennial and Z generations; 67 percent of voters ages 18 to 29 in 2018 voted for Democrats, a greater than 2-to-1 margin than the 32 percent of young people who voted for Republicans. These groups also spend more freely.

What motivates these execs to speak out against voter suppression, whether out of altruism or their bottom line is immaterial. Catering to the preferences of the public makes good bottom line sense, in products and campaign contributions. Why can’t those old white guys see this?