Corporate power--on the left

Liberals and Marxists used to complain about big corporations purportedly throwing their weight around to influence politicians. Now that many CEOs are on the left regarding social issues, how many such complaints have you heard recently?

A Wall Street Journal profile of Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff describes the new corporate arrogance:

“Benioff is among CEOs of companies, including Apple Inc., Bank of America Corp., Walt Disney Co., Intel Corp. and International Business Machines Corp., that have begun pressuring lawmakers on social issues, often with a warning: Change laws or risk losing business.”

The article also notes Benioff’s Berluti suits and his lifestyle:

“At their three San Francisco houses and Hawaiian estate, he and his wife, Lynne, have hosted friends to private concerts by Stevie Wonder, Neil Young and Lenny Kravitz. … He invited [business] chiefs in March to a six-course sushi dinner at his house overlooking San Francisco Bay, interspersing them with tech billionaires and celebrities including magician David Blaine, to urge them to act against the Georgia law.”

North Carolina Lt. Gov. Dan Forest offers a good response:

“The Salesforce CEO is a corporate bully. … One or two executives from San Francisco call their buddies, and then we’ve got leftist groupthink tarnishing North Carolina.”

I’m not a huge fan of boycotting corporations, but Benioff and his company seem worthy of attention. The Wall Street Journal noted:

At Salesforce’s annual shareholder meeting last year, an investor criticized Mr. Benioff’s public posture as polarizing and time-consuming. Retired Gen. Colin Powell, a Salesforce director, says he recently advised Mr. Benioff that his advocate persona may subject him and Salesforce to unwanted scrutiny. ‘Be careful how far you climb up the tree,’ he says he told Mr. Benioff, ‘it will expose your backside.’”