Ron DeSantis may be excellent on policy in the state of Florida, but he’s also becoming the most prominent culture warrior on the right as well. He’s stood up in the face of big tech, those pushing critical race theory, and against vaccine passports.

Now, he’s pushing back on China, and he’s not holding back on the hypocrites in Hollywood, in athletics, and in the business world who virtue signal about human rights and then shill for the CCP.

GOV. DESANTIS: "Major celebrities, athletes, and business leaders will frequently virtue signal regarding the latest crusade… about things in the United States. And yet, Almost every one of them fall silent when it comes to calling out the atrocities committed by the CCP." pic.twitter.com/Mbwzvh4dB5

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) June 7, 2021

Perhaps the starkest example of this involved Lebron James and the NBA. After an executive with the Houston Rockets spoke out in support of Hong Kong, James and others bent the knee fully, actually attacking the idea that China was doing anything wrong by quashing democracy there. The obvious reason behind their subservience was that the NBA makes billions of dollars in China and it is one of their top markets now as the popularity of the sport wanes in the United States.

(related The NBA Just Got Caught in the Biggest Scandal of Their History, Players Told Not to Comment)

In short, Lebron James and his counterparts are as woke as it gets until it threatens their bank accounts. Then they are suddenly all for nuance. These are the same people who push the false idea that police are roaming the streets, murdering black people in cold blood while rabidly supporting movements like Black Lives Matter. But when it comes to genocide in China, they shut up real fast.

The same is obviously true for Hollywood celebrities and much of the world of big business. Companies have their pride flags all over their social media this month, for example, but they won’t put it on their accounts that interface with China and the Middle East. These organizations stand tall when it comes time to spit in the face of some harmless Christians, but they become meek as a mouse the moment it might cost them something.

We can go over example after example to prove DeSantis’ point, but the major win here is that he’s making this point at all. For decades, Republicans have slinked away in the face of pressure from corporations that hate their guts. Worse, they’ve actively shilled for those corporations even as they work to undo everything conservatives are trying to preserve. In 2024, the biggest issue isn’t going to be marginal tax rates. It’s going to be whether whoever the Republican nominee is will stand up and fight the cultural battles that are engulfing our society. Anyone unwilling to do that, falling back on some faux appeal for the 1990s will not be supported. On that front, DeSantis is letting it be known that he’s not going to shrink under pressure.