Be honest: Is anyone excited for political conversations at the Thanksgiving table? While the holiday usually provides plenty of awkward family moments, the state of our post-election climate is surely going to leave some crying into a bowl of stuffing.
Although many Americans don’t look forward to their annual Thanksgiving political debate, most can take solace that their families will still love them, no matter who they voted for.
The same tolerance, however, might not extend from their employers.
Matt Maloney, CEO of Grubhub, sent an email the day after the election blasting President-elect Trump. While it’s no secret many CEOs and other public figures have taken issue with Trump’s rhetoric, Maloney moved beyond bashing Trump to attack Trump’s supporters.
He concluded his email with an ultimatum. “If you do not agree with this statement,” Maloney wrote, “then please reply to this email with your resignation because you have no place here. We do not tolerate hateful attitudes on our team.”
This is antithetical to the American values of free thought and our right to privately-held beliefs. Attitudes like Maloney’s can only inflict further damage on the political discourse in this country. There are dozens of reasons a person might have supported Trump, including healthcare, energy and regulatory policy. Lumping more than 60 million Americans who voted for Trump together and assuming they all hold hateful views is not just ignorant, it’s spiteful.
Thankfully, voting is still private, so it’s difficult to punish employees for their private political beliefs. Recent political movements, however, will make punishing anyone for their views much easier.
A ballot initiative passed this month in South Dakota requires, among other things, that organizations which spend $100 or more on speech report their supporters to the government. Non-profit groups, like Planned Parenthood and the National Rifle Association, have long been able to engage in issue education to support the causes they believe in. They’ve had little reason to worry about outing their supporters. Ballot measures and laws like the one in South Dakota look to chill much of that speech.
It’s not hard to imagine supporters of these groups being punished by employers. Imagine if after a school shooting a CEO looked up all of his employees who donated to the NRA and sent out a letter similar to Matt Maloney’s. What if a pro-life employer could look up the donor list for Planned Parenthood? Would employees still feel comfortable supporting causes and groups they believed in?
Unfortunately, we already know what harassment for supporting political causes looks like. After California passed Proposition 8, a ban on same-sex couples marrying, same-sex marriage advocates used publicly available government data to create a website allowing anyone to see the names and addresses of donors who supported the initiative. What followed was sadly predictable: Supporters were harassed and intimidated, threatening emails were sent, businesses boycotted and property destroyed or vandalized.
We even see a similar scenario playing out now with an anti-Trump movement called the #NotMyPresident Alliance. In an effort to convince Electoral College electors to vote against Trump, the group has released “personal phone numbers, addresses, religions, races, genders, and candidate preference of the electors.” As a result, electors are already being inundated with phone calls and emails. Who knows what’s next?
The United States is a pluralistic nation with political opinions varying wildly on any number of issues. Rather than seeking to reveal and punish supporters of a particular candidate or policy position, we should instead welcome a diversity of opinion both in our personal lives and workplace. Mark Zuckerberg said it best when responding to controversy around Facebook board member and Donald Trump-supporter Peter Thiel: “We can’t create a culture that says it cares about diversity and then excludes almost half the country because they back a political candidate.”
If we all acted a little more like Zuckerberg and less like Maloney, our Thanksgiving might go a little more smoothly. Now pass the turkey.
Eric Peterson is a policy analyst at Americans for Prosperity. Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the Washington Examiner? Be sure to read our guidelines on submissions.
