Opinion: When Walgreens had a moral compass

Also: The televised showdown that offers a preview of divided government. View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Wednesday, December 12, 2018 [NYTimes.com/Opinion »]( [David Leonhardt] David Leonhardt Op-Ed Columnist First, the Oval Office showdown yesterday between President Trump and the Democratic leaders in Congress — Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer — might have been entertaining. And it was probably bad for Trump. He managed both to make a government shutdown more likely, by emboldening House members who want a border wall, and pre-emptively accepted blame for any shutdown, as [Jennifer Rubin of The Washington Post]( writes. But if you care about the well-being of American government — and you should — I don’t think you can be too happy about the televised confrontation. “While entertaining, this also risks taking the level of dysfunction to new depths likely to further erode public faith in government — no small feat considering that the public already holds the government in lower esteem than your average war criminal,” my colleague [Michelle Cottle]( writes. Walgreens’ money, continued. In late June, Walgreens made [a $2,500 contribution]( to the campaign of Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, the Mississippi Republican. Almost five months later, on Nov. 2., Hyde-Smith made [a joke about a “public hanging”]( that seemed to be a reference to lynching. In the weeks after, many of Hyde-Smith’s corporate donors asked for their money back. Walgreens has not yet been publicly identified as one of those unhappy donors, but it was. I learned that while reporting on the company for [my most recent column](. Walgreens’ political action committee sent a letter to Hyde-Smith’s campaign “a day or two in advance of the special runoff election” that Mississippi held on Nov. 27, Brian Faith, a Walgreens executive, told me. I’m glad Walgreens asked that its donation be returned, even if it did so quietly. But I also think that the request to Hyde-Smith shows why the company’s response to the power grab by Wisconsin Republicans — whom the company has also supported financially — is inadequate. Last week, I asked Walgreens what it thought about the behavior of Wisconsin state legislators whom it gave money to this year. Those legislators have since [stripped powers]( from the incoming governor and attorney general for nakedly partisan reasons. Walgreens would not answer the substance of my question. It neither defended the power grab nor criticized it. “Our contributions at the time did not contemplate and do not reflect the current state of affairs in Wisconsin,” Phil Caruso, a Walgreens spokesman, said. Of course, the same is true of the company’s contribution to Hyde-Smith. When it gave her money in June, you can be sure the company “did not contemplate” that she might one day make a joke about lynching. Still, almost six months later, the company asked for its money back. It understood, correctly, that campaign donors bear some moral responsibility for the behavior of a politician they support. If that behavior is abhorrent, a donor with clear ethical standards will speak up. I’m still hoping that Walgreens will clarify its ethical standards. Related. How should Democrats respond to the power grabs in Wisconsin and elsewhere? Should they ignore them? Or plot their own partisan hardball? Neither, writes the political theorist [Jacob Levy]( in a Times Op-Ed: “There is a better option,” Levy says. “Democrats can use the Republican hardball against them by weaving together the Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina cases into a larger story to take to voters in 2020: the indictment of Republican attacks on democracy accompanied by an aggressive reform agenda for strengthening constitutional norms and democratic procedures.” [Matthew Yglesias]( has made a similar case in Vox. Progressives, he writes, should mimic the strategy of civil-rights activists and “make the rolling crisis Trump and Republicans have unleashed on American democracy something that’s discomfiting in tangible ways for the business executives and economic elites who are the real beneficiaries of Trump’s politics.” “The anti-Trump resistance,” he adds, needs “to deploy the rhetorical and organizational tools of a populist movement,” including sit-ins, demonstrations and more. The full Opinion report from The Times follows, including [Emily Bazelon and Miriam Krinsky]( on the new generation of prosecutors. [The Chuck and Nancy and Donald Show]( [President Donald Trump makes his point at the White House Tuesday in a meeting with the Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, right, and the House speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi, along with Vice President Mike Pence.]( President Donald Trump makes his point at the White House Tuesday in a meeting with the Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, right, and the House speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi, along with Vice President Mike Pence. Doug Mills/The New York Times By MICHELLE COTTLE If Tuesday’s Oval Office meeting is any indication, it’s going to be a rough two years. From Our Columnists [The Return of Paganism]( By ROSS DOUTHAT Maybe there actually is a genuinely post-Christian future for America. [The Most Powerful Reject in the World]( By FRANK BRUNI Is there anyone who wants to hang with Donald Trump? [There’s a Wave of New Prosecutors. And They Mean Justice.]( By EMILY BAZELON AND MIRIAM KRINSKY These district attorneys should make jail the exception and eliminate cash bail. [Would Indicting Trump Be Constitutional?]( Sarah Silbiger/The New York Times By MARTY LEDERMAN Yes, it would be. But that question is a distraction from the principal objective of the Russia investigation. [The Democrats’ Best Response to Republican Power Grabs]( By JACOB T. LEVY The best option goes beyond retaliation or restraint. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT [The High Cost of Shattering Democratic Norms]( By THE EDITORIAL BOARD Republicans in Wisconsin, Michigan and North Carolina seem intent on subverting the will of the voters. Contributing Op-Ed Writer [Brazil’s New President Isn’t Even in Office Yet and He’s Already Damaged Our Health Care]( By VANESSA BARBARA Our public health system is a jewel. Can it survive four years of recklessness? ADVERTISEMENT LIKE THIS EMAIL? 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