Deere in the headlights

It’s nice when a social cascade goes our way. It seems that when cultural dominoes start falling, those dominoes are boundary stones marking the fixed truths of the creation order, being knocked over by the secular revolutionaries. But right now, the revolution that took control of publicly traded corporations is being not just slowed or stayed, but in some cases reversed. Case in point, Tractor Supply and John Deere.

It is a testament to the power of the ESG/DEI movement that even companies such as Tractor Supply and John Deere, with predominantly conservative, rural, and Christian customer and dealer bases, got ideologically captured to the degree that they did. One would not expect such companies to be sponsoring Pride parades, including ones open to children, or hosting speeches from advocates of childhood sexual transition. One would not expect such companies to promote critical race theory-based bias training, which warns employees about the racial biases of their 2-year-olds and urges them to use The Anti-Racist Baby book to root white supremacy out of their toddlers. Nor would one expect to see employee training that urges employees to report female coworkers if they express reticence about men who identify as women using the same bathroom they do. When the tractor companies become pronoun police, the cultural revolution surely has won. But apparently, the revolution’s declared victory was a bit premature.

This summer, activist Robby Starbuck began to share information about how much Tractor Supply had caved in to extremist positions that have nothing to do with building or selling tractors. Employees started sending examples of how bad it really had gotten. Starbuck's X feed is filled with such examples. And then the company suddenly shifted course, eliminating DEI targets and pledging not to focus on non-core issues. It also severed its ties with the Human Rights Campaign, pledging not to participate in its annual Corporate Equality Index. I represent shareholders who may have had some role in this. After Dobbs, I wrote to the company congratulating it for not making the obligatory public pronouncements in support of Roe. And earlier this summer, we put the company on notice to stay away from brand-destructive Pride branding during June, especially anything having to do with children. Others also engaged and Starbuck gave the final definitive shove, and the revolution was reversed. Bravo, Tractor Supply. Now, don’t let it happen again.

But the counter revolution didn’t stop with Tractor Supply. It went on to John Deere, which had the same severe misalignment between the views of its customers and the mind virus pandemic at HQ. We had previously engaged with John Deere about reports of anti-religious discrimination in its charitable contributions policies. The company was at that time snarky and uncooperative. That’s a common experience for shareholders who question the left-handed politicization of companies—at least until things go public. Columns such as this one and social media campaigns such as Mr. Starbuck’s show the companies that we are not going to just slink away, but like the importunate widow in Jesus’ parable, we are going to keep knocking—and we are going to knock loudly enough that the neighbors are going to hear.

Like Tractor Supply, John Deere issued a statement reversing course, but one less full-hearted. The company pledged to stop funding awareness events and parades. It also said that it would review mandatory employee training for elimination of “socially motivated” messaging. Promising that it will not use diversity quotas or mandatory preferred pronoun usage. Promising in some vague way to refocus employee resource groups into business resource groups, without telling anybody what that involves, other than a name change. Also, the company said nothing about the fact that it discriminates against religious employees in not having a faith-based employee resource group. Further, in a recording leaked to Starbuck, it appears that a senior executive recently said that very little is going to change and that the changes that have occurred “we were already planning to do.”

Finally, while Tractor Supply is offering to meet with groups such as ours, John Deere is stonewalling. Tractor Supply’s board deserves hearty support from anyone who thinks that companies should stick to their core business and stay away from political pandering. John Deere deserves a “good start, but not done yet” grade. Christians should remember the parable, and just keep knocking on the door until these companies do what they were meant to do, and that is sell goods to customers to make a profit for their investors.