Parallel economy fueled by conservatives gives consumers alternatives that support their values

While companies such as Bud Light and Target have drifted left, leading to boycotts and backlash, conservative entrepreneurs spent much of 2023 creating a parallel economy to give consumers more products that align with their values. 

Conservative leaders described to Just the News how they got involved in businesses by creating multiple alternatives in banking, books, shopping, job boards and music. 

Last year, country music star John Rich announced the creation of a new bank for Americans who support freedom of speech and have concerns about their existing bankers punishing them – and their accounts – for publicly backing issues that their banks don't support.

The bank is called Old Glory Bank and it's being led by Rich, conservative commentator Larry Elder and Dr. Ben Carson, a former cabinet secretary and 2016 presidential candidate.

"People are having their bank accounts frozen, suspended and sometimes completely turned off," Rich said on the Just the News, No Noise TV show. "It disrupts their business in such a way that a lot of people lose their businesses when that happens. So that's another hill as we say... we have to build hills that people can run to."

Earlier this year, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, subpoenaed Bank of America, requesting information related to the firm's voluntary sharing of customer data with the FBI to aid its Jan. 6 investigations.

Public Square CEO Michael Seifert agreed with Rich's point about building hills people can run to instead of just boycotting. 

Public Square describes itself as "America's Marketplace." The service, started two years ago in San Diego, promotes businesses that support conservative values and outlets such as Fox News and The Babylon Bee.

"If I don't have somewhere else to move my money towards, then boycotts are insufficient," Seifert said. "They're incomplete, and so what we try to do for people is create a hopeful, positive alternative to some of the major brands they're used to shopping with so that they know with blessed assurance, they're not funding their opposition."

According to Seifert, the parallel economy is doing very well and represents over $7 trillion in GDP.

Another avenue that conservatives have been making advances in is book publishing. Sexually-explicit books in school libraries have been making headlines over the last few years, which has led to conservatives beginning to write family-friendly books. 

This led to Trent Talbot starting a company called Brave Books where authors can publish stories that uphold family values.

"We started our company with the idea that books are the most important thing because they have a special way of sparking kids' imaginations and activating their mind," Talbot said. 

He hinted that the company would be making its way into television entertainment in 2024. 

"We do think that there is a vacuum in the children's show world and it is time that 'Brave Books' makes its way to screen, and I would fully expect the release of a TV show in the year 2024," he told the "Just the News, No Noise" TV show.

Social media censorship is also a major concern, with platforms such as Meta censoring the political opinions of Americans. When Tesla CEO Elon Musk purchased X, formerly called Twitter, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, referred to it as the "single most important step for free speech in decades."

Former Congressman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., is the CEO of former President Donald Trump's social media platform, TRUTH Social, which now has about several million users.

"We're trying to take the best of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter or X.... and put it into one easy to use app," Nunes said in reference to TRUTH Social. 

He said that a goal of TRUTH Social is to create communities and have people interact with one another in groups privately.

"If you want to be on Social...you can develop your own little family group that's private," Nunes explained. "So if you want to get on there, and some people have private groups.....they want to talk freely amongst themselves. They don't want the fake news in there trying to grab stuff and share it."

Privacy and keeping data safe have been other big concerns consumers have when it comes to the online world.