Long ago while touring a chicken farm, then-president Calvin Coolidge and his wife became separated. As a result Mrs. Coolidge met the farm’s prized rooster first. A proud worker explained that this rooster could perform his fatherly duties all day long. “Tell that to Mr. Coolidge,” Mrs. Coolidge instructed. When the President came along the worker dutifully relayed Mrs. Coolidge’s message. “All with the same hen?” the President queried. “No,” the worker explained, “with a different hen each time.” “Tell that to Mrs. Coolidge,” the President replied.

That’s one of the few things anyone remembers Calvin Coolidge saying. Known as “Silent Cal,” Coolidge was famous for being taciturn. But he did say something else that is remembered by all – it was Coolidge who first proclaimed that “the business of America is business.”

So central is business to our national identity that Americans seem to worship successful business people. Every Sunday the Omaha World-Herald devotes several pages to Nebraska billionaire Warren Buffett. And two of the front-runners in the Republican presidential race are business moguls Donald Trump and Carly Fiorina. So appealing is the mystique of being a former CEO that even though Fiorina lost $25 billion at Hewlett Packard no one seems to care.

And it isn’t just the people who run businesses that are afforded exalted status; the Supreme Court has now granted their corporations the rights of free speech in the form of unlimited campaign contributions (Citizens United) and religious protection (Hobby Lobby) so they can discriminate against female employees.

Successful corporations symbolize the capitalist ideal – they make lots of money. To do so their leaders (Fiorina excepted) do whatever needs to be done to cut costs and maximize profits. And with the size of government a perennial concern among Republicans, conservative voters are drawn to business leaders in the hope they’ll run our country like an Asian sweatshop.

But just last week we were reminded again of the hidden costs of corporate success. Ex-CEO Stewart Parnell was sentenced to 28 years in prison for knowingly selling salmonella-tainted peanut butter, Turing Pharmaceuticals’ CEO raised the price of a drug from $13.50 per pill to $750, and Volkswagen’s CEO revealed his company had rigged its diesel cars to reduce their emissions only when being tested. Volkswagen’s admission comes on the heels of sometimes lethal air bag, ignition switch and acceleration problems that other auto makers had unsuccessfully tried to hide.

Now that the Supreme Court has granted them personhood one can justifiably say that many corporations, in their willingness to endanger people’s lives to increase profits, are evil. For every scandal that makes it into the news, how many go either undetected or unpunished? How many CEOs owe their success to finding new ways to cheat the government, their employees, and their customers?

Business leaders complain constantly about the burden of government regulations, but most regulations have been enacted only after there’s been an egregious abuse of consumer confidence, employee well-being and/or basic business ethics. Our government has recognized for over a century now that in a capitalist economy government must protect the people against the abuses of business. And yet who’s leading in the Republican polls? Two business leaders with no trace of political expertise.

A prominent CEO, like a rooster, is good at getting attention. But a rooster does only one thing to the hens – the same thing CEOs too-often do to consumers and workers. A wise voter will disregard all the crowing and look instead for a candidate who actually cares about people rather than manipulating them for his or her personal benefit.