Guest Column: Mom And Pop Alliance Uncovers Disturbing Partnership

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The Mom and Pop Alliance of South Carolina was founded to give the Palmetto State’s small businesses a stronger voice in the state capital of Columbia. We were part of a larger effort by other groups and involved citizens in the successful repeal of the state’s ‘Certificate of Need’ law, which should lower healthcare costs for everyone. More recently, we have partnered with the Venue Crisis folks in raising awareness about the hardships many venues (such as music venues, restaurants, bars, and event spaces) are facing. Due to a poorly worded law passed in 2018 (which went into effect this year), liability insurers are pulling out of the Palmetto State. Many venues are now experiencing unexpected skyrocketing of insurance costs – making it hard for them to keep their doors open. 

If you have been following our work, you know that the Mom and Pop Alliance (MAPA) was one of the first groups in South Carolina to ring the alarm on ESGs (or their newer, rebranded name, “conscientious capitalism”). This form of social credit scoring is inflicted on businesses (and local governments) – measuring a variety of ever-changing left-leaning priorities such as climate change and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). 

ESGs are extremely complex, but you can learn more about them here.   

ESGs have been flying under the radar for almost 20 years, and are responsible for much of the “wokeism” we are witnessing in America today. MAPA has put considerable time and effort into explaining and raising awareness of this complex topic. We have been traveling the state delivering our “ESGs Explained” presentation, publishing articles and making several trips to our State House delivering 170 bags of our signature popcorn as parts of our effort to educate legislators about ESGs. 

This insidious social credit scoring system hurts businesses and free markets, and even goes around representative government to efficiently usher in fast social changes that would not make it through our usual democratic process.  Americans are just waking up to this economic shakedown – a transparent effort to remake capitalism and “reimagine” our society.   

Many are wondering, “Where did this come from and who is behind it?”

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The answer is several entities are behind ESGs such as the United Nations (UN), multiple governments, the Clinton Global Initiative, multinational corporations, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and others, but the main driver is the World Economic Forum (WEF).  

Who is the World Economic Forum and how could it impact South Carolina?  

The WEF is a non-profit organization with assets of over $600 million that has been meeting in Davos since 1971. They bring together the “Who’s Who” of the globe from over 130 different countries. A complete list of the 3,000 attendees of the 2022 meeting can be found here. Some of 2023’s attendees included FBI director Christopher Wray, over 600 CEOs, several US elected officials, Volodymyr Zelensky, and Janet Yellen.

With its list of powerful attendees, clearly the WEF can exert extraordinary influence. Currently, Al Gore serves on the WEF’s Board of Trustees (you can learn more about an event Gore virtually hosted at Furman University last fall here.) Since 2004, through their Forum on Young Global Leaders they have trained many global leaders, such as Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau. 

According to their website, the WEF is an international organization for Public-Private Cooperation. Their site and associated content and videos would take many months to explore, but in 2020 the WEF laid out its plans to “reshape the world.” A few of their initiatives include: a “great reset” of capitalism (advancing stakeholders over shareholders), advancing a digital ID system that would collect personal data about your online behavior, advancing climate justice, and plans to transform pretty much everything from food, to technology, to healthcare, and beyond.

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(Via: WEF)

Klaus Schwab is the founder and leader of the WEF. Just last month he praised China for its contributions to fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and advancing global poverty reduction, while promising the WEF would deepen its partnership with China. 

Past quotes from Klaus Schwab include:

“…. every industry, from oil and gas to tech must be transformed…in short, we need a great reset of capitalism.” 

“The pandemic represents a rare but narrow window of opportunity to reflect, reimagine and reset our world.”

This is some spooky stuff, which begs the question: Why did our National Governor’s Association (NGA) decide to partner with the WEF in 2018? We must admit that it’s pretty ingenious of the WEF: If you want to transform America, partnering with these 50 people is a very efficient way of doing it.   

We should all be wondering just how the WEF is impacting policy and influencing America’s governors. Interestingly, the NGA has only three governor-led task forces, and our very own governor Henry McMaster co-chairs one of them: the Economic Development and Revitalization Task Force. 

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Now, to be clear, we are not suggesting governor McMaster is carrying water for the WEF. For most of us the WEF and their agenda to remake the world is just coming to light. And we honestly don’t believe his brokering of the recent $1,300,000,000 taxpayer incentive package to a foreign company for EV production (learn more here, here, and here) was done with the intention of promoting the WEF’s green agenda, helping China, or expanding ESGs in South Carolina.

Rather, we believe our governor truly thinks this recent deal is good for our state and will be worth the jobs created in local communities, but we sure hope he is aware of the potential influences of the pro-China, pro-global WEF, and he should definitely be asking why our National Governors’ Assoc. decided to partner with the WEF! Is it time for a discussion about the NGA pulling away from the WEF, or SC pulling out of the National Governors Association?

The Mom and Pop Alliance of SC is a statewide coalition founded during Covid-19 by actual small business owners who learned that our state’s 400,000+ small businesses lacked adequate representation in our State House.  While MAPA’s founders donate their time to this effort, running a statewide organization requires resources. If you believe that small and family businesses need someone in their corner – and you appreciate our work exposing ESGs – we would kindly ask you to consider supporting us in our vital work by becoming a member of MAPA.

Non-business owners can also join by becoming a “Friend to Mom and Pop.” Your support helps us to continue the important work of giving a stronger voice to SC’s hard-working small business owners while promoting free-market principles and growing entrepreneurship across our beautiful state. 

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

Diane Hardy is a former nurse anesthetist turned entrepreneur, who opened a franchise at Verdae in Greenville over five years ago. She is executive director of the Mom and Pop Alliance of SC, which she founded during Covid upon discovering South Carolina’s almost 400,000 small businesses had little representation in our State House. The Alliance provides education, communication, and advocacy for SC’s family-owned businesses. Her passion for South Carolina’s small business is strong, and as such she donates her time to the organization, accepting no salary or government funding.  Her love for our state isn’t new.  Before launching the Mom and Pop Alliance she was the founder and host of The Palmetto Panel (2014-2019), an annual statewide conference highlighting issues impacting South Carolina.  Diane has a bachelor’s degree in nursing and psychology from Michigan State as well as a master’s degree from MUSC.

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