By Lisa B. Nelson
Friday, May 20, 2016
People who run successful businesses, like the people
they employ and empower, often invest some of their success in the pursuit of
good causes. To this end, major companies donate billions of dollars every year
to fund a wide variety of nonprofit organizations dedicated to everything from
feeding the homeless and educating underprivileged youth to encouraging
environmental stewardship or a particular policy point of view.
But as the saying goes, the road to hell is well paved
with good intentions.
Recent reports that Facebook editors intentionally
discriminated against conservative news and institutions are just the latest
reminder that many major corporations — including prominent media outlets and
social platforms — reflect and promote left-wing priorities. Sometimes this is
intentional, as in cases such as Google’s publicly discriminating against
politically unpopular companies and slandering free-market groups. In
situations similar to what happened at Facebook, anti-conservative bias emerges
when workplaces become liberal echo chambers, in which conservative ideas and
media are not taken seriously and conservative employees are effectively
silenced. In fact, a common refrain from some corporate leaders who defend the
march to progressivism is that they are responding to employees’ desires, out of
fear of losing top talent.
This is short-sighted.
Successful businesses certainly engage employee concerns
and strive to sustain a welcoming environment. More companies should. But at
some point, business leaders must weigh public and consumer desire against the
ebbs and flows of internal sentiments. In spite of the political views of a
corporation’s leadership or its employees, it is incumbent on public companies
to acknowledge the belief systems and opposing perspectives of other groups.
Today, the same argument is prominent in political battles across the states.
When employees’ political agendas impede the employer’s ability to be
successful or profitable, there will be negative consequences for the company.
As corporate America takes pains to project a progressive
public image, a growing number of left-wing groups are taking advantage of
these boardroom insecurities. Progressive organizations increasingly take
corporate funding and then attack their benefactors in a never-ending bid to
force their often anti-business values on fearful businesses. Many progressive
nonprofit groups run attack ads, launch
shame campaigns, and viciously slander businesses that support free-market
policies and ideas, such as employee-paycheck protection, education vouchers,
or free trade.
A case in point: Shell publicly severed ties with a
network of free-market state lawmakers, the American Legislative Exchange
Council (ALEC), to appease anti-oil climate extremists. The company was faced
with a heated campaign organized by the same forces that opposed the Obama
administration’s approval of Shell’s bid to drill for oil and natural gas in
the Arctic. Amid the politically motivated regulatory mess, Shell swiftly
abandoned the high-profile drilling project, only months after loudly
championing it.
Put simply, Shell surrendered two valuable assets to
left-wing hecklers — its participation in a large, effective network of
powerful legislators and $7 billion in its prized Arctic drilling project.
Meanwhile, the Shell Foundation spends millions on solar and other
renewable-energy projects favored by the same activists who willfully undermine
its business success in the name of, among other things, renewable energy.
Of course, it is the height of hypocrisy to embrace
corporate funding and then attack those corporate donors for investing in the
successful practices that gave them the means to donate in the first place.
More important, this ongoing dynamic shows the degree to which businesses have
willfully catered to the far Left in hopes of being loved, only to find their
generosity transformed into their own weakness.
For industry leaders, donating to progressive
organizations in the hope of earning good will is like paying ransom to
blackmailers in the hope they will be satisfied and stop. Progressive agitators
will never be satisfied, and the more support they get, the more they will use
it against their misguided supporters.
Instead of pandering to groups that will never love or
respect them, industry leaders should embrace networks and ideas that encourage
the healthy economic growth vital to everybody’s success. General Electric CEO
Jeffrey Immelt understood this well when he stood up to U.S. senator and
presidential candidate Bernie Sanders to defend free enterprise for the
incredible good it has done for hardworking American taxpayers.
The people who create jobs for hardworking Americans
should never apologize for success or enable the bad actors who would undermine
it. If industry leaders want to keep succeeding, they should encourage a
culture and society that values entrepreneurship, education, and success. If some
progressives are loudly unhappy about that, so be it.
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