Progressive virtue-signaling by the elites of American finance, technology, and industry is well on its way toward replacing the power of democratically elected government in regulating our behavior.  Who needs to go through the messy business of passing laws when the increasingly oligopolistic commanding heights of the economy can impose rules on us by fiat?

The financial behemoth that now calls itself "Citi" yesterday announced that it will be shunning business with those who do not conform to its ideas on the limitations of the Bill of Rights.  Currently at issue is the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, but in theory, once this sort of thing begins, freedom of speech, religion, and association, or due process (among other rights), is not off the table.

Today, our CEO announced Citi is instituting a new U.S. Commercial Firearms Policy.  It is not centered on an ideological mission to rid the world of firearms.  That is not what we seek.  There are millions of Americans who use firearms for recreational and other legitimate purposes, and we respect their Constitutional right to do so.

But we want to do our part as a company to prevent firearms from getting into the wrong hands.  So our new policy centers around current firearms sales best practices that will guide those we do business with as a firm.

Under this new policy, we will require new retail sector clients or partners to adhere to these best practices: (1) they don't sell firearms to someone who hasn't passed a background check, (2) they restrict the sale of firearms for individuals under 21 years of age, and (3) they don't sell bump stocks or high-capacity magazines.  This policy will apply across the firm, including to small business, commercial and institutional clients, as well as credit card partners, whether co-brand or private label.  It doesn't impact the ability of consumers to use their Citi cards at merchants of their choice.

Graciously, Citi allows that if you do not agree, it will assist you in easing out:

We know our clients also care about these issues and we have begun to engage with them in the hope that they will adopt these best practices over the coming months.  If they opt not to, we will respect their decision and work with them to transition their business away from Citi.

Citi enjoys less of a monopoly than do Google and Facebook, so there remain alternatives for banking, credit cards, and other services that Citi provides.  But high finance is a small world, increasingly dominated by a handful of institutions that are "too big to fail" and therefore (like Citi) tapped taxpayers for liquidity when the financial crisis of 2008 hit.  That is how they consolidated their dominance.

The power of Google and Facebook to control what information gets to you, and what distribution you can get for your own thoughts, combined with the ability to limit your access to capital, can effectively bypass the Constitution's protections that constrain government, not business.

Tucker Carlson gets it: this is a dangerous step down the path to oligarchy.  Clearly, it is time to start getting serious about antitrust laws, now that our corporate masters seek to control our thoughts and behavior.

Rush transcript via Grabien:

CARLSON: Well, there is still widespread belief, particularly on the right, that business interests are basically conservative. You could argue about whether that was ever true. Certainly not true now. The opposite is true. Ideological gap between leaders of America's most powerful corporations and say the Democratic Party is basically nonexistent. They agree on everything. Now having failed at the ballot box in 2016, the left is using other means to make the outcome of those elections irrelevant, in fact. Nowhere is this clearer than on the subject of the second Amendment there is a constitutional right to bear arms in the bill of rights. Number two. In most states there is not a lot of enthusiasm for restricting the second Amendment. Voters don't want it. It doesn't matter. The left is now colluding with large companies to roll back your rights to bear arms without any legislation at all. No public debate. They are just doing it for example, on the website red it the hate for gun deals has been banned. You can't go there anymore. Google has banned the postings of gun sellers or promote the purpose of guns or accessories or magazines. Banned video how to detach gun accessories. Already powerful firearm channels. You can't get the information anymore. But the most amazing example of this comes from city bank. Now, that company announced today it will require all of2its clients to block gun sales to those under 21, to bar the sale of bump stocks or high capacity magazines. You may remember Citi group 10 years ago they got 45 billion of your taxpayer dollars to get bailed out. That's why they still exist. Now they turn around and work to undermine the constitutional rights of the taxpayers who bailed them out. We called Citibank today to asked ask if they he would send a representative over to explain how this works but they refused because they are coward. This is happening more and more. More companies participating and taking action on more issues. The fear the government might take your rights becoming quaint. Big tech and finance are doing it already. With no public debate they just do it and tough luck if you don't like it.