The Republican governor issued the threat on Thursday in an opinion piece for the New York Times, warning “the business community” to fall in line with him and other social conservatives and get behind the Marriage and Conscience Act, Louisiana’s proposed enhancement of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act that would further entrench anti-LGBTQ discrimination in state law.

Jindal’s op-ed is cartoonishly vile, but there is nothing shocking about the position he’s staked out. Jindal intends to remain resolute in his bigotry even as more of the nation embraces equal marriage — or at least begrudgingly concedes that they’re losing the argument. This is old news. Add that to the fact that is is already perfectly legal to discriminate against LGBTQ people in Louisiana, and Jindal’s “bold” stance looks even more unhinged.

There is very little threatening the the right to discrimination in his state, but Jindal is still “holding firm,” he writes:

In Indiana and Arkansas, large corporations recently joined left-wing activists to bully elected officials into backing away from strong protections for religious liberty. It was disappointing to see conservative leaders so hastily retreat on legislation that would simply allow for an individual or business to claim a right to free exercise of religion in a court of law. […]

As the fight for religious liberty moves to Louisiana, I have a clear message for any corporation that contemplates bullying our state: Save your breath.

Jindal’s bigotry is not new, but the timing of his corporate tough talk is interesting for a few reasons, and not just because he is rumored to be angling for a 2016 presidential run. Jindal’s op-ed was published less than two weeks after he told state legislators that he wanted to rein in “corporate welfare” by going after certain refundable tax credits.

This is a small but nonetheless significant change in tone for Jindal, since it was just two years ago that he proposed abolishing the state’s corporate income tax (as well as the personal income tax, which worked out so well in Kansas) and has spent much of his tenure as governor taking his cues from Grover Norquist.

“If companies are getting checks from the taxpayer as opposed to paying taxes, then that is government spending that needs to be examined and reduced,” he said earlier this month. “It would be wrong for us to impose cuts to higher education, in order to protect this corporate welfare.”

So Jindal’s big ask of these corporations is that they stand shoulder to shoulder with him in discriminating against LGBTQ people at the same time he is threatening to target (even if minimally) their tax goodies. He wants companies to embrace homophobia as a brand while he cuts their welfare checks. It’s an interesting request, to say the least.

More from his Times piece:

Some corporations have already contacted me and asked me to oppose this law. I am certain that other companies, under pressure from radical liberals, will do the same. They are free to voice their opinions, but they will not deter me. […]

If we, as conservatives, are to succeed in advancing the cause of freedom and free enterprise, the business community must stand shoulder to shoulder with those fighting for religious liberty. The left-wing ideologues who oppose religious freedom are the same ones who seek to tax and regulate businesses out of existence. The same people who think that profit making is vulgar believe that religiosity is folly. The fight against this misguided, government-dictating ideology is one fight, not two. Conservative leaders cannot sit idly by and allow large corporations to rip our coalition in half.