Under three different CEOs, Walmart has done all kinds of somersaults to appease left-wing critics. In 2005, Lee Scott set goals of “zero waste” and “100 percent” conversion to renewable energy. In 2009, Mike Duke, the next CEO, took on Obamacare—as an outspoken supporter of the unpopular health care bill. This was “a stunning metamorphosis,” the Wall Street Journal declared in a company profile. Walmart had gone from being a “whipping boy of the political left to corporate leviathan now welcomed with open arms by a Democratic White House.”

This February, Doug McMillon, the current CEO, agreed to raise the entry-level hourly wage at Walmart to no less than $9 an hour in April and to $10 an hour (or 33 percent above the current federal minimum wage) in early 2016.