Major corporations were quick to condemn the insurrection and tout their support for democracy — and almost as quickly, many ditched those purported values by cutting big checks to the very politicians that helped instigate the failed coup attempt. The increasing volume of corporate donations to lawmakers who tried to overthrow the will of the people makes clear that these companies were never committed to standing up for democracy in the first place.
How to Stop Trump and Prevent Another
Jan. 6
Jan. 4, 2022, 7:00 p.m. ET
Opinion Columnist
On Christmas morning, I woke up early
and flipped on CNN, where I found the newscaster toggling among three news
stories — two really depressing ones and an amazingly uplifting one.
The first depressing story was the
rapid spread of the Omicron variant. The other was the looming anniversary of
the Jan. 6 insurrection. Both the threat from the virus and the distorted
beliefs about the attack on the Capitol were being fueled by crackpot
conspiracy theories circulated by Facebook, Fox News and Republican politicians.
But then there it was — sandwiched between these two disturbing tales — a remarkable story of U.S. and global collaboration to reach a new scientific frontier.
It was the launch at 7:20 a.m. Christmas Day of the James Webb Space Telescope. According to NASA, “thousands of scientists, engineers and technicians” — from 306 universities, national labs and companies, primarily in the U.S., Canada and Europe — contributed “to design, build, test, integrate, launch and operate Webb.”
Thank you, Santa! What a gift to remind
us that a level of trust to do big, hard things together is still alive on
planet Earth. By operating from deep in space, Smithsonian magazine noted,
“Webb will help scientists understand how early galaxies formed and grew,
detect possible signatures of life on other planets, watch the birth of stars,
study black holes from a different angle and likely discover unexpected
truths.”
I love that phrase — unexpected truths. We have launched a
space telescope that can peer far into the universe to discover — with joy —
unexpected truths.
Alas, though, my joy is tempered by
those two other stories, by the fact that here on Earth, in America, one of our
two national parties and its media allies have chosen instead to celebrate and
propagate alternative
facts.
This struggle between
those seeking unexpected truths — which is what made us great as a nation — and
those worshiping alternative facts — which will destroy us as a nation — is THE
story on the anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurgency, and for the coming year.
Many people, particularly in the American business community, are vastly underestimating
the danger to our constitutional order if this struggle ends badly.
If the majority of G.O.P. lawmakers
continue to bow to the most politically pernicious “alternative fact” — that
the 2020 election was a fraud that justifies empowering Republican legislatures
to override the will of voters and remove Republican and Democratic election
supervisors who helped save our democracy last time by calling the election
fairly — then America isn’t just in trouble. It is headed for what scientists
call “an extinction-level event.”
Only it won’t be a comet hurtling past
the Webb telescope from deep space that destroys our democracy, as in the new
movie “Don’t Look Up.”
No, no — it will be an unraveling from
the ground up, as our country, for the first time, is unable to carry out a
peaceful transfer of power to a legitimately elected president. Because if
Donald Trump and his flock are able in 2024 to execute a procedural coup like
they attempted on Jan. 6, 2021, Democrats will not just say, “Ah shucks, we’ll
try harder next time.” They will take to the streets.
Right now, though, too many Republicans
are telling themselves and the rest of us: “Don’t look up! Don’t pay attention
to what is unfolding in plain sight with Trump & Company. Trump won’t be
the G.O.P.’s candidate in 2024.”
Who will save us?
God bless Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger,
the two Republican House members participating on the Jan. 6 investigation
committee. But they are not enough. Kinzinger is retiring and the G.O.P.
leadership, on Trump’s orders, is trying to launch Cheney into deep space.
I think our last best hope is the
leadership of the U.S. business community, specifically the Business Roundtable, led by General Motors C.E.O. Mary
Barra, and the Business Council, led by Microsoft C.E.O. Satya
Nadella. Together those two groups represent the roughly 200 most powerful
companies in America, with 20 million employees. Although formally nonpartisan,
they lean center-right — but the old center-right, the one that believed in the
rule of law, free markets, majority rule, science and the sanctity of our
elections and constitutional processes.
Collectively, they are the only responsible force left with real leverage on Trump and the Republican lawmakers doing his bidding. They need to persuade their members — now — not to donate a penny more to any local, state or national candidate who has voted to dismantle the police or dismantle the Constitution.
Yes, that’s false equivalency. Nothing is as big
as the Trump cult’s threat to our constitutional order. But it’s still
relevant. For a lot of Americans, watching a smash-and-grab gang ransack their
local mall and violent crime jump
— and then seeing the far-left trying to delegitimize, defund or dismantle their
police — is just as frightening as those trying to dismantle their Constitution
on the Capitol mall.
I believe there are many Americans in
the center-left and center-right who vigorously oppose both, and they think
it’s a disgrace when progressives tell them not to worry about the first or
when Trumpers tell them not to worry about the second.
When you take both seriously, many more
people will listen to you on both. Individually, in their hometowns — like
mine, Minneapolis — business leaders have effectively
pushed back on dismantling the police. Now it is time for America’s business
leaders to just as forcefully push back on the Trump Republicans trying to
dismantle the Constitution.
Why should they risk alienating
pro-Trump lawmakers who soon may control both the House and the Senate? Besides
love of country?
Let me put it crassly: Civil wars are
not good for business. I lived inside one in Lebanon for four years. Corporate
America shouldn’t be lulled by 2021’s profits, because once a country’s
institutions, laws, norms and unstated redlines are breached — and there is no
more truth, only versions, and no more trust, only polarization — getting them
back is almost impossible.
Can’t happen here? It sure can.
Rick Wilson, a
longtime G.O.P. strategist opposed to Trump, recently described to The Washington
Post what will happen if the campaign by Representative
Marjorie Taylor Greene and other Trump cultists succeeds to get more Big Lie
promoters elected in 2022 — and the G.O.P. takes the House or Senate or both:
“We’re looking at a nihilistic Mad Max hellscape. It will be all about the show
of 2024 to bring Donald Trump back into power.” He added, “They will impeach
Biden, they will impeach Harris, they will kill everything.”
So what will big business do? I wish I
were more optimistic.
CNBC reported Monday
that data compiled
by the watchdog group Accountable.US “shows that political action committees of
top corporations and trade groups — including the American Bankers Association,
Boeing, Raytheon Technologies, Lockheed Martin and General Motors — continued
to give to the Republican election objectors.”
Kyle Herrig, president of
Accountable.US, said in a statement: “Major corporations were quick to condemn
the insurrection and tout their support for democracy — and almost as quickly,
many ditched those purported values by cutting big checks to the very
politicians that helped instigate the failed coup attempt. The increasing
volume of corporate donations to lawmakers who tried to overthrow the will of
the people makes clear that these companies were never committed to standing up
for democracy in the first place.”
The leaders of these companies are
totally underestimating the chances that our democratic institutions will
unravel. And if American democracy unravels, the whole world becomes unstable.
That will not exactly be good for business, either.
Neutrality is not an option anymore. As
Liz Cheney put it on
Sunday: “We can either be loyal to Donald Trump or we can be loyal to the
Constitution, but we cannot be both.”
So, my New Year’s
wish is that item one on the agenda for the next meetings of both the Business
Roundtable and the Business Council will be: Which side are we on?
