Trump appeals to corporate America’s better angels

OPINION:

Without a doubt, the single most patriotic enterprise undertaken in recent memory by an American corporation was CBS’s excellent “Bicentennial Minutes,” which aired once each night (in primetime) from July 4, 1974, to Dec. 31, 1976.

Each minute featured a celebrity sharing a fragment of history from that day during the American Revolution. Each one was a history lesson wrapped in patriotism, and almost all were delightful and informative. The program was initially sponsored by Shell and won an Emmy.

I mention all this because a friend recently pointed out to me that leadership of the presidential variety is important for the nation’s tone. This is especially true nowadays, when patriotism and love of country are no longer the baseline expectation.

Corporations, if they are not careful, tend to wind up being pinatas for political tribes.

That is most obvious in the change in corporations’ emphasis, as companies that used to pay close attention to Pride Month essentially ignored it this year in favor of the current regime’s preferences regarding the 250th birthday of our nation.

June used to be the month in which corporations energetically competed to see which could be most in favor of one of the seven deadly sins, this particular one involving the sexual orientation of people who are pretty emphatic that the orientation in question is determined in utero and is not a matter of choice.

That has the practical effect of turning the entire exercise into the equivalent of being proud to be tall, short, blue-eyed or brown-eyed.

Nevertheless, corporations dutifully followed our “leaders” and insisted that pride is the appropriate response to God-given traits. That was, of course, just the most visible and unfortunate outgrowth of the American version of the Great Leap Forward, more commonly known as diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

This year, however, with the helpful attention of team Trump, corporations are playing the game down the middle of the political fairway. June was relatively free of the leftward-leaning propaganda in which corporations routinely engaged.

In its place was, in many cases, a resurgent patriotism among some in the corporate community.

Let us be honest: Most corporations are about making cash, and that is fine. Part of the genius of the American system is that not everyone has to have an opinion about everything. One-third of the population that is consistently indifferent to politics almost certainly helps us avoid political turmoil and, in extremis, politically driven violence.

Corporations, like disinterested citizens, are intermediating institutions that usually take their cues from their environment. Every once in a while, however, they help set that environment. That can be bad (think Tesla helping China launch its electric vehicle industry) or good (think Neuralink helping people with disabilities).

The current president drives people to choose sides and brings out the best and worst in people.

In the past few months, in the corporate world, we have seen blue chips as diverse as Boeing, Ford and Coca-Cola getting in the spirit of the 250th. Their presence is welcome and, in some circumstances, no doubt a result of the president’s sometimes subtle and sometimes overt leadership.

For successfully appealing to the better angels of the corporate hierarchy, we should be grateful to President Trump. We should earnestly hope that after the sugar high of the 250th is over, American companies maintain some of the residual goodwill toward their nation.

• Michael McKenna is a contributing editor at The Washington Times.