If you can’t handle facts, diversity, or accountability, you can’t work on my team.
Let’s just get this out there: As a department leader, I mentor, encourage and coach the career paths of every person who reports to me. Managing stress, burnout and the mental and physical well being of my team is action item number one. I am also responsible for ensuring my department meets their goals, quarterly and yearly. That may mean a financial goal, this could represent a strategic growth goal, it may mean signing new business and new clients, it may mean growing the business and billing revenue of current clients.
Every day, I strive to make sure my department isn’t the place you dread walking into every morning. Sunday nights are for relaxing and having dinner with the family, not dreading Monday morning. In order for any company or department to be a success, teamwork, compatibility, respect, and willingness to pitch in are the secret ingredients to a happy and successful department and company. I know this because every year my department ranks at the top of the list in morale and “I trust my boss” in the yearly company employee survey. Year after year, my primary mission is to build and maintain a functioning team that enjoys working together. After years of hiring, firing, and stressing about the professional and personal welfare of my team, I’ve landed on one unwavering rule: I don’t hire MAGA Republicans. I don’t care if that offends you. I don’t care if it’s “discriminatory.” I’m not the government, I’m an employer. I choose who I work with, and I’m done pretending that voting red is just “a difference of opinion.” We’re too far past that point of no return.
Here’s why.
1.) Facts Still Matter
Only 29% of Republicans accept that climate change is mostly caused by humans. For Democrats, it’s 83%.[1] If you can’t process basic science, I can’t trust you with a spreadsheet, much less a project plan. I work in a data driven industry, and if you can’t accept data and accept facts, even if the facts that disappoint you, I can’t use you, and I certainly can’t and won’t put you in front of a client or Executive Staff to spout your alternative facts. If you continue to lie, I can’t use you.
2.) WOKE is Right, and the Decent Thing to Do
Diversity, DEI, respect, is more than just being woke, it’s the decent thing to do. Let’s face it, we are DECADES into a global economy explosion. Get used to it, there is no going back. FACT: Companies with more racial and ethnic diversity outperform their competition.[2] I have members on my team located across the United States, as well as Montreal, Brazil, Pakistan, England, and Australia. Each of these valued team members is a human being with their own families, challenges, worries, ambitions, hopes, and dreams. And we take care to support that. Each team member has a valued skill set that contributes to our department’s success, and we show each team member the respect they deserve. MAGA Republicans treat diversity, equity, and inclusion as a threat. They position it as a chore that is imposed on them. If your politics see inclusion and common decency as oppression, you will not fit in here.
3.) Don’t Waste My Valuable Time with Your Performative Outrage.
Business moves fast. Some days, we need to make decisions on the spot. Other days, we have the luxury of more analysis. Either way, we all have deadlines. I’m not wasting meetings on whether Obama was born in the U.S. or if Dr. Fauci is a Bond villain. I’ve had enough of coworkers derailing projects with Fox News talking points. Facts are facts. Your performative outrage disrupts actual work.
Here’s what that looks like in real life: an Account Manager was preparing to present marketing campaign data to a client. As we settled into the conference room and small talk began, the Account Manager took the client to task for posting a Black Lives Matter graphic on Instagram. He said he “couldn’t support that narrative” and wanted to open the meeting by expressing “concerns about political messaging in business.” That meeting was for a Q3 performance report. He made it about his worldview with a flourish of performance outrage. Soon after, the client pulled their business.
When we’re in a meeting, we need to focus on the issues at hand, budgets, goals, roadmaps, launches. Your cable-news-fueled performance art has no place in a department meeting, at the water cooler, or in front of a paying client. I hire professionals, not pundits.
4.) I Want Builders, Not Blockers
Republicans love saying “no.” There is no pandemic. Say no to masks. Say no to vaccines. Simply, your refusal of basic decency to protect your, mine, and all of our team members’ health won’t fly here. We may have team members that are immune compromised. That’s their private business. But we are going to do everything to protect them.
The new building block of success is looking forward to the new opportunities that lay before us. If you can’t look forward, you will be left behind looking backward. Manufacturing is not coming back. Get over it. Blocking and backward thinking kills teamwork and progress. I want people who build together, not people who block everything because of a backward view of progress.
5.) Grow Up and Be Accountable
From COVID to January 6, MAGA Republicans always dodge the messes they make. It’s never their fault, and they are always the victim. I make mistakes. My staff makes mistakes. The Executive Staff to whom I report makes mistakes. But when we make mistakes, we acknowledge them, own them, and work together to fix them. Finger pointing and blaming get us nowhere. I want coworkers who own their mistakes, not people who blame George Soros and the Deep State every time something goes wrong.
6.) I am Not Your Babysitter. You are Not a Victim
If seeing a Pride flag or pronouns in Slack makes you lose it, you’re not conservative, you’re fragile. You are not a victim of the gay pride movement. You are not a victim of the Civil Rights movement. You are not a victim of Affirmative Action. That is bullshit that Fox News, OAN, Newsmax, and Breitbart fed you, and you believed it. Those outlets make it easy for you to blame others for your situations. Only you are responsible for your situation. If a flag or a pronoun in a Slack channel profile offend you, you are a fragile person, and in business, fragility is a liability. I want stronger people who have the backbone to acknowledge, celebrate, and support our team member’s uniqueness.
7.) Authoritarianism Kills Collaboration
Over 70% of Republicans still believe the 2020 election was stolen.[3] That’s not skepticism, that’s delusion and gullibility. And delusional gullible thinking is poison in any business environment.
Consider this hypothetical. My company and department are in the middle of a pitch process for a new client and initiative. All stakeholders openly discussed all presented concepts. The stakeholders agreed on one idea and direction. It wasn’t close. However, the person whose concept lost claims that someone manipulated the process. They insist that someone rigged the results. They stir up teammates, claim bias, question the integrity of the decision-making process, and when that doesn’t work, they try to freeze the project altogether.
That’s not dissent. That’s sabotage.
I’ve worked with people like that. They don’t just disagree, they attack and delegitimize. They don’t seek clarity, they demand loyalty. That’s what modern authoritarianism looks like in the workplace: constant suspicion, endless grievance, and a refusal to concede when the group moves in a direction they don’t like.
So no, I’m not putting someone like that in charge of a budget, a roadmap, or a team. And I am certainly not putting them in front of a client. Because if you’re okay with overturning democracy, I sure as hell can’t trust you with a product launch.
8.) Respect and Rights Are for Everyone
The GOP loves to talk about “freedom,” but in practice, it’s about deciding who gets rights and who doesn’t. They’ll restrict your privacy and freedom by legislating your body, your marriage, your vote. But try getting them to support healthcare for all or paid family leave.[4] That’s not freedom. That’s oppressive socialism.
Now put that mindset in a workplace.
Let’s say your company rolls out a new parental leave policy that includes adoptive parents and same-sex couples. It’s a win for equity. But the one guy on the team who listens to Ben Shapiro during lunch suddenly has a problem. He calls it “virtue signaling,” says it’s unfair to “traditional families,” and makes enough passive-aggressive comments that your HR inbox lights up.
Or maybe HR shares an internal memo on expanding healthcare coverage to include mental health, contraception, or gender-affirming care. Instead of appreciating the progress, he’s in the break room asking if this means he’ll have to pay higher premiums because “people can’t figure out what gender they are.”
This isn’t hypothetical. This happens. And it kills morale, sows resentment, and turns inclusive policies into battlegrounds. I want to work with people who believe rights and respect are for everyone, not just people who fit neatly into their comfort zone.
Because if your idea of freedom ends where someone else’s begins, you’re not a teammate. You’re a threat to the culture I’m trying to build.
9.) My Office Isn’t Your Church
Most white evangelicals vote Republican,[5] and some bring their crusades to work. I’m not hiring someone who turns every HR policy into a sermon.
We’re here to ship products, not convert anyone.
I’ve seen what happens when personal theology spills into professional spaces. A company adds a Pride logo to its social accounts during June, and suddenly a team member refuses to take part in marketing reviews because they “don’t support that lifestyle.” Or an employee objects to inclusive holiday decorations, asking why there’s a menorah in the lobby or why the office can’t go back to “just saying Merry Christmas.”
Worse, I’ve seen pushback on benefits packages, like coverage for birth control or mental health counseling, because “it goes against God’s will.” Suddenly HR is juggling religious exemption requests from someone who doesn’t want to attend sexual harassment training because it includes a module on LGBTQ+ sensitivity.
That’s not religious freedom. That’s disruption.
And it’s expensive. A 2016 Tanenbaum Center study found that more than one-third of U.S. workers have experienced or witnessed religious bias or non-accommodation at work, and unresolved religious conflict can lead to lower employee satisfaction and higher turnover.[6]
Everyone’s entitled to their beliefs. But there’s a line between having convictions and imposing them. If your faith means you can’t collaborate respectfully, treat coworkers equally, or follow company policy without staging a moral protest, then this isn’t the workplace for you.
Because at the end of the day, we’re not baptizing servers, we’re shipping product.
10.) The Confederacy Ended in 1865. Get over it.
A 2021 poll found that two-thirds of Southern Republicans supported the idea of seceding from the United States.[7] That’s not patriotism. That’s cosplay for people who can’t let go of the past.
And yes, that separatism mindset shows up at work, and it’s destructive to a department and a company.
It shows up in the guy who bristles every time Juneteenth is mentioned, muttering about “made-up holidays.” It shows up in the Slack thread when DEI training is announced, and someone asks why there’s no “Straight White Male Appreciation Day.” It shows up when someone hijacks a company town hall to rant about how “cancel culture is destroying real America.”
These aren’t theoretical. I’ve seen employees derail projects with culture war tantrums, reject collaborative decisions, and treat workplace inclusion as a threat to their identity.
I’m building a team, not a Confederate reenactment group. If your worldview is rooted in grievance, nostalgia, and a nonexistent golden age, you are hindering our growth.
Last Thing Will this piece cost me followers? Maybe. Will I get angry emails? For sure. But I didn’t start writing to make friends. I said what I really think.
And here’s what I think: I’ve hired Republicans before. They brought Fox News into the office, picked fights, and turned every group chat into a culture war.
So I’m done. You don’t have to like it. But you’re not the one making the hires.
Legal Note This essay is personal opinion and protected speech. It reflects my experience and isn’t formal company policy or legal advice. U.S. employment law varies by state and sometimes protects political affiliation. If you’re an employer, talk to your lawyer before using politics in your hiring process.
Footnotes
[1] Pew Research Center, “Americans’ Views of Climate Change,” 2023. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/09/06/americans-views-of-climate-change/
[2] McKinsey & Company, “Diversity Wins: How Inclusion Matters,” 2020. https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/diversity-wins-how-inclusion-matters
[3] NPR/Marist Poll, “Most Republicans Still Believe the 2020 Election Was Stolen,” 2021. https://www.npr.org/2021/12/09/1062436786/poll-republicans-trump-election
[4] Brennan Center for Justice, “Voting Rights & Representation.” https://www.brennancenter.org/issues/voting-rights
[5] Pew Research Center, “Religion and Public Life,” 2021. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/09/30/religion-in-america/
[6] Tanenbaum Center, “What American Workers Really Think About Religion,” 2016. https://tanenbaum.org/publications/what-american-workers-really-think-about-religion/
[7] Bright Line Watch Survey, July 2021. https://brightlinewatch.org/secession-survey-july-2021/
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