Amazon is a behemoth that hates conservatives. The only way to get them to behave better is to impose costs on them. Even if you aren’t well disposed to unionization, credible pressure from the right is the only way to get things like the Ryan Anderson book ban to stop happening. That’s why Sen. Rubio’s move this morning matters, promising not to support the company against its workers seeking unionization.

I would like to see Republicans go further, but the willingness to say this changes the game, because nobody expected it to happen:

I’ve assumed that backing unions would be a hard line (so to speak) for even would-be populist Republicans to cross, so this is significant from Rubio:https://t.co/5eN6BH7eZm

— Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) March 12, 2021

With the fall of the GOP’s senatorial old guard, a substantial line of defense for large companies is likely to come down, and there are probably a fair number that will have to start rethinking things. This is exactly how Rubio has framed it in his USA Today op-ed:

Uniquely malicious corporate behavior like Amazon’s justifies a more adversarial approach to labor relations. It is no fault of Amazon’s workers if they feel the only option available to protect themselves against bad faith is to form a union. Today it might be workplace conditions, but tomorrow it might be a requirement that the workers embrace management’s latest “woke” human resources fad.

It isn’t clear whether the union effort is primarily driven by complaints from its workers, agitation from Democratic operatives, or just the fact that Jeff Bezos has now become the first person in history worth $200 billion. But Amazon should understand that waging a war on small businesses and working-class values has burned bridges with former allies.

What he’s saying is: Amazon has hung conservatives out to dry, and Republican politicians should, at a minimum, do the same to Amazon. He’s right.