Merck CEO shows power of corporate conscience

American voters are obligated to pass judgment on President Donald Trump. Increasingly, American corporations may find that they, too, have little choice.
After Trump failed to call out the racists responsible for the deadly violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, last weekend, Merck & Co. chief executive officer Kenneth Frazier made an announcement: He was resigning, he said via Twitter, from Trump’s American Manufacturing Council.
“America’s leaders must honor our fundamental values by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy, which run counter to the American ideal that all people are created equal,” said Frazier, who is black. “As CEO of Merck and as a matter of personal conscience, I feel a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism.”
Frazier’s statement of principle was promptly greeted by a typically juvenile yet threatening tweet from the nation’s chief executive, noting that Frazier would now have “more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!”
American corporations are understandably reluctant to wade into political controversies, in part because potential customers can usually be found on all sides. Yet Trump’s faint moral instincts and persistent challenges to ethical norms increasingly demand a response. And history shows that business can be a powerful force for social progress and public decency.
During the Civil Rights era, for example, Atlanta business leaders insisted their city was “too busy to hate.” Even seemingly minor decisions, such as marketing consumer products with messages of racial diversity and social inclusion, make a difference.
Frazier’s statement—along with those of scores of others, including many Republicans—may have even had an impact on Trump’s decision, later Monday, to get more specific about what happened in Charlottesville. “Racism is evil and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans,” he said, erasing the ambiguity he had nurtured all weekend.
What Frazier said and did is consistent with the best traditions of corporate America. Trump’s intemperate tweet in response was no doubt intended to show other corporate leaders the price to be paid for distancing themselves from divisiveness. In the long run, however, the price of abandoning cherished American ideals will prove far higher.
—Bloomberg