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Heritage
Foundation
This
CEO Made a Political Donation, Then Lost His Job Because Liberals
Didn't Like It
Rob
Bluey
April
4, 2014
The
chief executive of Mozilla resigned yesterday amid protests over his
$1,000 donation in support of California’s Proposition 8, which
defined marriage as the union of a man and a woman.
Brendan
Eich’s 2008 donation was first revealed two years ago while he was
serving in a senior role at Mozilla. But it was after his appointment
as CEO last month that half of Mozilla’s board quit and company
employees publicly voiced their disapproval. Others launched a public
campaign seeking his ouster.
In
the wake of yesterday’s news, Andrew Sullivan, a leading advocate
for redefining marriage, said the episode “should disgust anyone
interested in a tolerant and diverse society.”
Heritage
Foundation scholars weighed in with their reaction.
Ryan
T. Anderson, the William E. Simon Fellow in Religion and a Free
Society, warned that “bullies” were poisoning democratic
discourse by attacking anyone who doesn’t share their view:
The
outrageous treatment of Eich is the result of one private, personal
campaign contribution to support marriage as a male-female union, a
view affirmed at the time by President Barack Obama, then-Sen.
Hillary Clinton, and countless other prominent officials. After all,
Prop 8 passed with the support of 7 million California voters.
So
was President Obama a bigot back when he supported marriage as the
union of a man and woman? And is characterizing political
disagreement on this issue—no matter how thoughtfully expressed—as
hate speech really the way to find common ground and peaceful
co-existence?
Sure,
the employees of Mozilla—which makes Firefox, the popular Internet
browser—have the right to protest a CEO they dislike, for whatever
reason. But are they treating their fellow citizens with whom they
disagree civilly? Must every political disagreement be a capital case
regarding the right to stand in civil society?
When
Obama “evolved” on the issue just over a year ago, he insisted
that the debate about marriage was legitimate. He said there are
people of goodwill on both sides.
Hans
von Spakovsky, manager of the Election Law Reform Initiative and
senior legal fellow, said the episode was an example of how the
disclosure of political contributions served as a means to intimidate
and harass an individual for his personal views:
Before
Eich resigned, he pointed out that he had kept his personal beliefs
out of Mozilla and that they were not relevant to his job as CEO. He
was exactly right, although that did not prevent him from resigning.
In
a startling display of irony that was obviously lost on her, Mozilla
Executive Chairwoman Mitchell Baker, who approved of Eich’s
resignation, said it was necessary because “preserving Mozilla’s
integrity was paramount.” She seems not to recognize that forcing a
founder of the company to resign because of his personal beliefs that
have nothing to do with his qualifications as a corporate officer is
the exact opposite of “integrity.”
Eich
is certainly not alone in his predicament. As The Heritage Foundation
previously pointed out, other supporters of Proposition 8 in
California have been subjected to harassment, intimidation,
vandalism, racial scapegoating, blacklisting, loss of employment,
economic hardships, angry protests, violence, death threats, and
anti-religious bigotry. All committed by individuals claiming they
are simply trying to gain “acceptance” and who complain about the
supposed intolerance of society over their lifestyle.
Read
this and other articles at The Heritage Foundation
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