When I worked for IBM, all employees were required to review and sign IBM’s Business Conduct Guidelines (BCGs) annually. IBM’s BCGs are the behavioral business principles and standards they expect from their employees.
Many companies send their version of BCGs annually to employees through training materials and reference documents. The employees complete the training, read the documents, and sign indicating compliance.
If an employee violates their company’s BCGs, the employer can terminate them.
Violating the guidelines can also lead to criminal or civil prosecution.
When the Government discovered that former President Trump had taken hundreds of their classified documents, they repeatedly asked (with deference) for him to return them. If former President Trump had done the right thing and returned the documents that were not “declassified,” not “Presidential records,” and that DID NOT BELONG TO HIM, he’d have one less scandal to worry about.
But, of course, Donald Trump didn’t do the right thing. Instead, he lied, deflected, and obstructed his way to a 37-count indictment.
If you or I purposely violated our employer’s Business Conduct Guidelines by stealing proprietary or classified information and then lying about it, we’d be in legal trouble—and rightfully so.
Concerning his conduct in general, former President Trump has a long record of dubious businesses and business deals, for which he’s paid millions of dollars in legal settlements – not to mention his abhorrent personal behavior.
And yet, this crooked, twice-impeached, ethically vacuous convicted felon is the Presidential candidate for the Republican party.
Intelligent and decent-minded people not tainted by political tribalism are appalled at the mere thought of Trump once again sitting at the helm of American democracy.
I usually refrain from making political posts on LinkedIn. But I’m at a point where I have zero fucks to give, so I’ll speak my mind regarding America and American values (regardless of the venue), especially when both are in jeopardy of being trampled.
Additionally, I firmly believe a second Trump presidency will damage the collective psyche of Americans, especially those who genuinely care about conduct, ethics, and integrity.
Our political parties, institutions, and businesses coexist in the same ecosystem. The rot from today’s GOP will seep into other areas of society unless we stop it at the ballot box.
The ballot box is America’s last line of defense against the rot of political grift, intolerance, and authoritarianism, which will erode the fabric of our country, including corporate America.
With that said, here we go.
After the 2020 election and the events of January 6th, most Americans just wanted to put our abusive relationship with Trump in the rearview mirror and return to normalcy.
Unfortunately, Trump lingers like a fart in a closet.
After eight years of Trump polluting our politics with dishonesty and unethical behavior, we continue to wallow in a palpable and inescapable MAGA malaise – because Trump is all around, all the time. He’s on the news, in the newspapers, on social media.
Most Americans are exhausted (not to mention ashamed and embarrassed) by Trump.
When hard-working Americans pull their noses away from the grindstone and look up to see the former highest official in the land lying and disregarding the rule of law, with an entire political party backing that behavior and an onslaught of propaganda aimed at deconstructing our democratic institutions, they begin to question the stability of the country in which they live and work.
And quite honestly, I think that’s the intent of the Trump-led GOP. To weaken Americans’ confidence in democratic institutions and systems so they can dismantle and replace them with authoritarian-based systems.
Americans generally refrain from discussing politics at work (historically, we know nothing good comes from it). We willingly accept our political differences because we know (or at least we thought we knew) that values like honesty and integrity transcend politics – that if a President were demonstrably dishonest and unethical, we’d put aside politics and condemn him uniformly.
Unfortunately, we discovered that with the Trump presidency, the reverse is true – politics transcends values. As former President Trump once said, he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any of his supporters.
The assault on truth and our democracy did not end when Trump-inspired rioters left the capital late in the afternoon on January 6th. The assault is ongoing. Today’s perpetrators are not violent insurrectionists beating police officers with American flags but elected and appointed officials with blind and cult-like allegiance to a corrupt demagogue. The assault and threat are equally, if not more dangerous, as it has the illusion of legitimacy.
Several months ago, Republicans voted unanimously to censure a member of the opposition party for his role in the impeachment trial of former President Trump. Republicans have floated a proposition to “expunge” the impeachments of President Trump, who knowingly tried to extort the leader of a foreign country and overturn a free and fair election.
The GOP crossed the Rubicon by embracing Trump and Trumpism – dragging millions of brainwashed Americans with them.
American corporations who spoke out against the events of January 6th and pulled support from candidates who knowingly lied about that day need to tap back into the sense of urgency and condemn what is happening currently with the Republican Party. So, when former President Trump gets on his social media platform, and spouts lie after lie about the 2020 election, companies need to return to form and explicitly and publicly denounce him and any member of Congress who regurgitates the lies. Silence provides a haven and fertile environment for unethical conduct to grow and spread.
The corporations we work for can help Make Americans Proud Again by speaking out against dishonest and unethical behavior and the assault on truth from Trump and Trump sycophants in the GOP. Otherwise, confidence in American institutions will wane, cynicism will take root, and morale will drop – which isn’t good for business.
bendingtheneedle 