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Why haven’t business elites stood up for Minnesota? | Daniel Altschuler

Alex Pretti – an ICU nurse documenting alleged cases of federal immigration agents’ overreach – was killed by federal agents in Minneapolis on 24 January. Just hours later, Minnesotans gathered in their neighborhoods for vigils to mourn his death and demand an end to the federal incursion on their state.

Meanwhile, the CEOs of Apple, Amazon, Zoom and the New York Stock Exchange attended a glitzy screening of the new Melania documentary at the White House, where they munched on popcorn in special commemorative black-and-white boxes and took home Melania-branded cookies.

That day offered a stark split-screen, with the courage of everyday people on one side, and the cowardice of elites on the other.

Pretti and his fellow Minnesotans decided to risk physical abuse and even death to defend and support their neighbors. Minnesotans have modeled community and courage, and people from coast to coast have spoken up, donated and acted in solidarity. Following Pretti’s death, their determination has only grown.

There is no shortage of courage in our country right now. It is just unevenly distributed.

In the wake of Pretti’s death, US elites – those running major businesses, universities, law firms, media companies and other mainstream institutions, often hailing from the nation’s most exclusive academic institutions – have continued on their course of compliance and complacency.

Countless leaders have responded to the authoritarian actions of Donald Trump’s second administration with silence. Numerous others have capitulated, paying exorbitant settlements and sacrificing the independence of organizations they lead at the altar of self-preservation. Many have sold out their professions’ fundamental principles such as academic freedom and free expression.

Even amid the recent horrors in Minnesota, the state’s big corporations could muster only a statement of lackluster both-sidesism after Pretti’s death, “calling for an immediate deescalation of tensions and for state, local and federal officials to work together to find real solutions”. And while a handful of corporate leaders nationally have issued mostly muted statements for ICE to stand down, these calls have been few and far between and failed to match the gravity of the crisis we are facing.

If the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti aren’t enough to jolt those leading major institutions out of their complacency, what will be?

Capitulation is not just shameful; it’s dangerous. Scholars remind us that a strong and independent civil society is a crucial pillar for supporting democracy – and, when it is in jeopardy, curbing democratic decline. At their best, elite institutions and their leaders lend their reputations and their resources to promote civic dialogue, provide a check on government misdeeds and uphold fundamental rights. At their worst, they create a permission structure for wanton abuses of power.

With the administration’s violations of fundamental rights and repression accelerating, why have elites been so unwilling to stand up?

One answer lies in the values and reward structures embedded in such institutions and ingrained in those who lead them. These leaders tend to have been raised to embrace a profound individualism paired with a heavy dose of conformism – a toxic combination that makes them less likely to speak up when we need them most.

I know these values, because I was trained in them. I attended an elite prep school, a wealthy liberal arts college and graduate school at Oxford. At every step, my classmates and I learned to cultivate confidence in our individual talents – and to follow rules set forth by figures of authority.

The result: many of my peers – who often went on to occupy leadership positions at major corporations, law firms and those same universities – learned to prize careerism and going along to get along above all else, including defending democratic values.

After graduation, rather than joining my fellow elite graduates at investment banks or management consultancies, I went to work as a community organizer. For years, I witnessed people in precarious positions taking enormous chances for their families and communities. Tenants risked eviction to expose abusive landlords; restaurant workers risked their jobs to demand stolen wages; young immigrants risked arrest and deportation to demand legal recognition.

Meanwhile, as white nationalism and an authoritarian movement became ascendant, I heard many of my privileged peers express private concern. This year, some attended No Kings protests. But few have joined or contributed significantly to organizations dedicated to stopping authoritarianism. When some former classmates expressed outrage about the incoming administration’s plans to undermine democratic institutions, I suggested they join a group training people to organize. No one took me up on the invitation.

I see in this hesitance a discomfort with collective action built from a lifetime of celebrating individualism – and a deep aversion to risk. Earning large salaries in leadership positions, my one-time peers have seen others speak up and be pilloried or threatened. As former treasury secretary Robert Rubin recently wrote: “Many [business] leaders harbor deep concerns about Mr Trump’s lawlessness, weaponization of the government, and interference in markets. They refrain from public criticism not because they find nothing to criticize but because they’re intimidated.” These elites understandably feel they have a lot to lose, but the cost of silence in this moment is simply too high.

Most are also perplexed about how to best respond. Some have misinterpreted this moment as a difficult period they can ride out. Others who recognize the authoritarian breakthrough are unsure what they can do to stop it. They were trained to follow and exploit the rules of the game; now the rulebook is in tatters.

The killings of Good and Pretti make it clearer than ever that we need a new rulebook. Our country desperately needs elites to stand up and take a risk – and to harness the power of solidarity. As we’ve seen in other countries and in too-rare cases here, when elites stand together, they can change the trajectory.

Hundreds of philanthropic leaders publicly committed to stand together to defend their constitutional rights to give, speak and act freely, slowing administration attacks on the sector.

Chicago business, faith and philanthropic leaders joined together to denounce the reckless deployment of ICE and Customs and Border Protection officers across their city. Their principled unity demonstrated that the city’s major pillars opposed the federal incursion, a crucial development leading up to the supreme court decision requiring the withdrawal of troops.

The presidents of Harvard, Princeton and MIT stood up for the independence of their institutions at considerable risk to their funding – and won reprieves in court.

Those law firms that resisted executive orders against them have been winning their cases and notching new clients. Jimmy Kimmel saw record ratings after fighting government censorship. Lisa Cook, the Federal Reserve governor, appears poised to prevail at the supreme court against Trump’s attempt to unseat her.

And, showing that principled resistance is not a question of political ideology, many Republican-appointed federal judges have blocked authoritarian policies that threaten the constitution; and longtime conservatives such as Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger and Bill Kristol continue to voice opposition to the administration’s authoritarian actions.

But among the leaders of the country’s most august and powerful institutions, these examples remain the exception, not the rule. We badly need more institutions and leaders – from across the ideological spectrum – to stand up and stand together for democratic values.

For inspiration, they would do well to look to the thousands of working-class people from Minnesota to Maine to Memphis who have risen bravely against violations of their neighbors’ rights and violence by federal agents, with only cellphones and whistles to protect their neighbors.

If the elites across this country can find that same courage to speak up together for core democratic values, we can still prevent our country from descending into full-blown autocracy. We all need to remember that confidence we learned in school – and move past the conformism.