Postauthoritarian America wrote:WaPo: 100 corporate leaders in conference call to discuss common response to GOP vote suppression effortsMore than 100 chief executives and corporate leaders gathered online Saturday to discuss taking new action to combat the controversial state voting bills being considered across the country, including the one recently signed into law in Georgia.
Executives from major airlines, retailers and manufacturers — plus at least one NFL owner — talked about potential ways to show they opposed the controversial legislation, including by halting donations to politicians who support the bills and even delaying investments in states that pass the restrictive measures, according to four people who were on the call, including one of the organizers, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a Yale management professor.
While no final steps were agreed on, the meeting represents an aggressive dialing up of Corporate America’s advocacy against controversial voting measures nationwide, a sign that their opposition to the laws didn’t end with the fight against the measure passed last month in Georgia.
It also came just days after Minority Leader Mitch McConnell warned that firms should “stay out of politics” — echoing a view shared by many conservative politicians and setting up potential further conflicts between Republican leaders and the heads of some of America’s largest firms. Earlier this month, former president Trump called for conservatives to boycott Coca-Cola, Major League Baseball, Delta Air Lines, Citigroup, ViacomCBS, UPS, and other companies after they opposed a new law in Georgia that critics say will make it more difficult for poorer voters and voters of color to cast ballots. MLB decided to move its All-Star Game this summer from Georgia to Colorado because of the voting bill.
The online call between corporate executives on Saturday “shows they are not intimidated by the flack. They are not going to be cowed,” Sonnenfeld said. “They felt very strongly that these voting restrictions are based on a flawed premise and are dangerous.”
Leaders from dozens of companies such as Delta, American, United, Starbucks, Target, LinkedIn, Levi Strauss and Boston Consulting Group, along with Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank, were included on the weekend’s Zoom call, according to people who listened in. The meeting was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The discussion was led at times by Kenneth Chenault, the former chief executive of American Express, and Kenneth Frazier, the chief executive of Merck, who told the executives that it was important to keep fighting what they viewed as discriminatory laws on voting. Chenault and Frazier coordinated a letter signed last month by 72 Black business executives that made a similar point — a letter that first drew attention to the voting bills in executive suites across the country.
The call’s goal was to unify companies that had been issuing a flurry of their own statements and signing onto drafted statements from different organizations in the wake of Georgia passing its voting ball, Sonnenfeld said. The leaders called in from around the country — some chimed in from Augusta, Ga., where they were attending the Masters golf tournament.
“There was a defiance of the threats that businesses should stay out of politics,” Sonnenfeld said. “They were obviously rejecting that even with their presence (on the call). But they were there out of concern about voting restrictions not being in the public interest.”
One Georgia-based executive talked about how the final version of Georgia’s legislation — which Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) has said actually expands voting access, a claim that many have challenged — was much worse than expected, and how that should serve as a warning to other chief executives as more states consider adopting their own voting bills, according to people on the call.
Mike Ward, vice president of the Civic Alliance, a nonpartisan group of businesses focused on voter engagement, said at the end of the Zoom call that he felt there was a broad consensus that company leaders plan to continue working against voting bills they feel are restrictive — “to lean into this, not lean away from this.”
Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin. Or if you prefer the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. Unless there are some drastic changes made the end of the Republican Party is coming, sooner and swifter than anyone expects. May I live to see it.
Considering that they didn't start applying pressure till after the law was passed, I expect corporate America to do little to fight voter ID laws.
