Nike’s decision to pull a Betsy-Ross themed sneaker, apparently at the urging of Nike spokesperson former NFL star Colin Kaepernick, was a bridge too far for Arizona Governor Doug Ducey (R). Nike was slated to announce a “major investment” at Goodyear, Arizona, but now Ducey has ordered the pulling of incentives the state offered to them.
"Today was supposed to be a good day in Arizona, with the announcement of a major @Nike investment in Goodyear, AZ," the governor said in the first of a nine-tweet thread.
"And then this news broke yesterday afternoon," he added, linking to an article about the company's decision to nix the Betsy Ross shoe. "Words cannot express my disappointment at this terrible decision. I am embarrassed for Nike."
Then, Ducey offered this doozy:
"We don’t need to suck up to companies that consciously denigrate our nation’s history," he wrote.
Leaving aside the “conscious denigration” part (aside from noting that it’s neither), I love the first part, which I translate as this: We are happy to suck up to you, as long as you don’t offend our delicate snowflake sensibilities. Among the many things that are problematic about state incentives to businesses, we can add that those businesses had better conform to the small-minded standards of any politician holding either purse strings or a microphone.