Last April, when Major League Baseball pulled the All-Star Game out of suburban Atlanta, sending what it thought was a strident example of the powerful corporate punishment every state would face if Republican lawmakers passed laws it did not like, its corporate, academic, and cultural peers applauded the move.

Commissioner Rob Manfred’s decision was seen by those who agreed with him as a heroic one that leading American institutions should take when they want to counter what they consider a societal wrong.