Written by Bill Hennessy on December 9, 2009 – (cross-posted at St. Louis Tea Party)
The most disappointing thing about leaving the military is that it usually means leaving the last bastion of leadership in America. If you open your own business or freelance, you probably don’t notice the cowardly folks populating corner offices in American Fortune 500 enterprises. You’d puke, as Holden Caulfield might say.
John Mackey of Whole Foods had the courage to oppose socialized medicine AND to defend his position and his right to say it. Gina Loudon led a Nationwide Tea Party Coalition BUYcott in support of Mackey. It was a wild success. How many corporate CEOs, COOs, CMOs, CIOs, or CFOs stood behind Mackey?
Very few. Because too many Big Business executives are myopic cowards when it comes to challenging the government. They would rather strap on knee pads and crawl to the White House to beg Prince Barack for scraps from Andy Stern’s bounteous plate than to stand on their own two feet and say, “You, Mr. President, are destroying the American job engine.” How’s retirement treating you, Fritz?
Maybe I’m wrong. Here’s your chance to prove it.
Comment on this post. Tell St. Louis and America who you are, the company you help run, and what you’re doing to stop the socialization of America. We want to know who you are so we can rally around you and your brand.
Tell us here: who are the brave, tough leaders. Tell us. Tell us, because we’re looking for someone to rally behind. We want another Mackey to buy from. We are ready to shop YOUR STORES. We’re just looking for a few good leaders!
Yes, there are a few brave men and women among you. Damn few, though. Too eamn few. You want to know why ACORN and SEIU and all the other leftists keep shaking down big corporations? Because the companies cave. It works. No one in his right mind would buy stock in ANY company in America that’s run by a weasel who praises free markets, then bows to our socialist prince. It’s profits are fleeting. Regulation and taxation are long-term threats.
Prove me wrong. Show us what you’re made of, if it’s anything but tapioca pudding. Comment. Go public. Please. I want to be wrong about this. I want to know that our business leaders can be REAL LEADERS when times demand it. I’m not asking you to destroy your company. That wouldn’t do us any good. I’m asking you to lead, to earn our trust and respect, to give us more examples to point to and say, “Look, she gets it! That’s why we buy from her company.”
We don’t want to shop in shady back rooms. We want to walk in, heads high, as we do at Whole Foods. We want to know which Fortune 500 leaders will protect us from Washington.
*UPDATE* To recognize the those few corporate execs who put their mouths where their money is by supporting free markets and free speech, see the Brave CEOs page. There are SO MANY great leaders in business outside of those very largest corporations that we can’t list them all. St. Louis has many. I know we all love our bosses, but we can’t list every company here. I can name a dozen great business leaders from St. Louis companies who advance freedom every day. But we’re looking for the Big Board companies, the CEOs make a LOT of money.
To keep it reasonable, we need to hear about Fortune 500 companies, what their leaders have done to advance free markets, and why they should be on the Brave CEO page. (A public-use image of the executive would make it easier to maintain the list, by the way.)
Given their recently being attacked by Center for American Progress, I would nominate Charles Koch of Koch Industries. This privately held conglomerate may well be best known to the public as the parent of paper company Georgia-Pacific.