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CRAPUCHETTES: America Needs A Red Wave In The Workplace

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The elections are over and the results fell short of conservatives’ expectations. But as I look around at the changing political and social landscape, I see potential. The left’s significant strength is its understanding that politics are downstream from culture. In other words, the results of the midterms shouldn’t be too surprising.  If we don’t like the election results, we have to change the culture.

Yes, many Americans are increasingly frustrated with liberal economic and crime policies, but the left has a well-established strategy for advancing its agenda.  The fact that the voting blocks of single women and Gen Z all swung hard left proves this point.  To win back our country’s politics, we need to win where culture is made: Families, schools, and the workplace.

It’s not easy to be an unapologetic conservative in the workplace.  Sometimes chatty co-workers misconstrue or mock conservative politics, faith, or opinions about a certain vaccine. Conservatives find themselves thinking twice about what they post on Facebook, or refraining from “liking” something on LinkedIn in case someone at work sees.

Most conservatives find it much easier to keep their heads down and get their work done. After all, what’s to be gained by speaking up?

We have everything to gain by speaking up, and a lot to lose by staying silent. Only through speaking up can we change the culture and the nation’s direction through politics. When liberals own the conversation, they dictate the playing field and the  narrative. And the narrative shapes the nation. There has never been a more important time to “come out conservative.”

But many conservatives are hesitant to be vocal about their values at work because they feel all alone. That’s just not true.  Conservatives are the largest ideological group in America – they are just the least likely to say anything. But speaking up is one of the best ways for conservatives to discover they have allies at work.

I recently released an episode on RedBalloon’s podcast, The Courageous Economy, called “Coming out Conservative.” After encouraging conservatives to stand for their values in the workplace, I started receiving stories from people who were inspired to speak up at work. A gentleman at a small company was surprised to discover that nearly all of his co-workers were conservative, and he never would have known if he hadn’t started speaking up.

One of my favorite stories came from an employee at Deloitte who “came out” when a DEI trainer said that all the unvaccinated people should just “go to an island together and die.”  This employee boldly shared that she would never get the vaccine. Before the speechless trainer could respond, several other employees raised their hands and said the same thing. And what a relief it must have been.

One of the first guests on my show this season was former Morgan Stanley Managing Director David Bahnsen. Even as a high-profile figure in the investment world, he decided that he would be an unapologetic conservative because it was too exhausting to do otherwise.

“My view is that people are going to find out what I think, whether I say it or not.  It’s going to come out. I can’t live with the pressure of remembering what I’m supposed to say and not say, and who I can say it around and who I can’t. I just wake up and be myself every day.”

Another guest, David Hall, shared what it was like to finally come out conservative at the public school where he taught, “You don’t realize the low-grade stress that people are having every day by suppressing the truth in their own heart and their own mind, and you don’t even know it’s there until it’s gone … I slept very well that night knowing that I had done what’s right, come what may.”

Being an open conservative might feel like having a big target on your back, but you are actually in a better legal position when you come out as a conservative, according to multiple labor lawyers I have spoken with.

One conservative author put it very well when he said, “If you keep your politics hidden in secret, then the persecution can be secret as well; the persecution and the removals, the lack of promotion, the termination – all of that will be as secret as you were about your politics and your faith.”

When America’s conservatives start speaking up, companies will be less likely to spend their resources on woke gimmicks and more likely to get back to business. An investment fund director I know recently did this. He approached the head of investor relations for a popular multinational retail chain. He politely shared that his clients were conservatives and were opposed to the company funding a gay pride parade.

The head of investor relations was grateful for the call. She said that she “only heard from the left,” and they were “always pushing on that issue.” After receiving her first call opposing it, she was able to go back to the board and tell them that they had investors on both sides of the issue. That justified the company’s decision to avoid supporting the parade and get back to making money for their investors. And all the person had to do was stand up.

When you’re reading a book, the hero is not the person who keeps his head down and hopes everything will blow over. The hero speaks up. The hero takes action. And once one person stands up, it makes it exponentially easier for others to stand up too.

By ‘coming out conservative,’ you are exercising your freedom of speech and expression, and ensuring that conservative values are represented in the marketplace of ideas. But that’s not all you are doing.  You are also encouraged by those around you to stand up too.  It’s time for everyday Americans to be heroes.  It’s time to come out conservative. Our country’s future depends on it.

Andrew Crapuchettes, is the founder and CEO of RedBalloon, which was founded in 2021 as the solution to the ever-growing problem of government overreach and cancel culture” invading the American workplace.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller.