Chris Hughes, the owner of The New Republic, quashed an article one of the digital media company’s writers wanted to do about tax avoidance at Apple. Hughes made two arguments: that Apple was acting “squarely within the law” and that it would be wrong to criticize the company right after its CEO had come out as gay.
Matthew Schmitz, writing at First Things, says this little story illustrates contemporary liberalism’s priorities: “One must choose one’s loyalties. In this case and in many others, the Democratic Party and its organs have chosen the sexual desires of the rich over the economic aspirations of working Americans.” Even if the generalization is true — and it may well be — this comment seems a bit off. It’s not at all obvious to me that Apple would be doing any great favors for “working Americans” by paying more taxes than legally required. I can well see how social conservatives might be nostalgic for an older form of liberalism that placed less emphasis on sexual liberation than today’s. Nostalgia should not, however, lead conservatives to parrot that liberalism’s view of the economy.