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The 2024 election won’t be a referendum on ‘woke capitalism’

Alan Murray, Nicholas Gordon
·2-min read

Good morning.

It’s remarkable how quickly the attack on “woke capitalism” has faded from the U.S. political scene. The two main attackers—Gov. Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy—have retreated ingloriously from the playing field. Nikki Haley never carried this particular spear. And Donald Trump may sympathize, but he has other, more pressing, battles to fight.

That’s not to say the backlash is over. Red state attorneys general continue their fight against investment funds using ESG screens. Conservative legal groups continue their attack on companies adopting explicit racial guidelines in decision making. And hordes of social media warriors stand ready to attack the next brand daring to follow in the footsteps of Bud Light.

But the notion that the 2024 election is going to be a referendum on companies that want to help people and planet is gone. And no one should be surprised. “Make Quarterly Earnings Great Again” is a rallying cry that only resonates with high speed traders and private equity turnover artists. Running companies for the benefit of society is not just the right thing to do; it’s good for shareholders in the long run.

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So where does that leave us? ESG has lost its luster—in part because it was an ungainly amalgam of ideas to begin with. “Greenwashing” and “purpose-washing" are out of fashion—because the public relations downside may be as great as the upside. And diversity efforts have been dialed back from the fevered pitch of 2020. But the underlying forces driving business to pay more attention to social impact have not gone away. In a world where human capital is more valuable than physical capital, businesses must inevitably become more human.

And check out this week’s episode of Leadership Next, in which Michal and I interview Roelof Botha, who is not CEO but rather “senior steward” of Sequoia Capital, an investment firm that Botha says helped build companies that now make up 27% of the value in the NASDAQ. Among other things, we asked Botha whether the AI boom was a bubble:

“The AI wave rivals the internet and it rivals cloud computing and it rivals mobile, and it really benefits from all of those and I don’t think it’s hype. I promise you it will exceed our expectations in years to come. It is transformative.”

You can listen on Apple or Spotify.

More news below.


Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com