Every so often, the discussion of boycotts is presented to conservatives after a business or corporation plunges too far into liberal grandstanding. The question now comes to Major League Baseball, and it comes at a time when conservatives feel more cornered than ever.
MLB’s decision to move its All-Star Game out of Georgia was nothing less than a full surrender to a silly voter suppression narrative fabricated by the Democratic Party. Democrats lied about Georgia’s new voting law, and rather than avoid partisan politics and focus on honoring MLB legend Hank Aaron in Atlanta, MLB leaders decided to make the league a pawn of the Democrats.
The question of what conservatives should do is not a simple one. After all, if conservatives had to boycott every form of entertainment that declared its support for liberal politics, there wouldn’t be many options left. In the end, it comes down to how willing each individual is to put up with an organization that is opposed to their values for a few weekly hours of entertainment.
Some people decide it’s worth it, but for sports, that number is continuing to drop. Roughly 35% of people say they are watching fewer games on television as a result of multiple sports leagues joining social justice campaigns last summer. The most political sports league, the NBA, has seen its ratings drop for nearly two years now. MLB wasn’t immune to that last year, seeing the 2020 World Series bring in 32% fewer viewers than the previous low point in 2012.
Some will continue to watch baseball. For many, watching games on TV or at the ballpark is a generational tradition, one that no one can blame them for wanting to continue on. But many conservatives are becoming increasingly unforgiving toward the encroachment of politics in entertainment as those organizations become more aggressively liberal.
Some conservative boycotts are dumb, such as when former President Donald Trump led an outrage cycle against the film The Hunt because he and others couldn’t understand that the liberal elites hunting the “deplorables” were actually the bad guys. But Major League Baseball has launched an openly partisan shot to its conservative fans. When, or if, many decide to tune out, it will be justified.
Conservatives rarely organize boycotts or pressure campaigns. The truth is that it’s hardly necessary. While social justice mobs on social media can push companies into liberal circles, conservatives typically speak with their pocketbooks and move on. Major League Baseball is going to find out how many people decide to do just that.
