Over the past 50 years, the left in America has successfully transformed American society. Among the long list of liberal victories is the growth of the welfare state, sexual liberation, removing God from the public square, abortion, affirmative action, redistribution of wealth, more government control of business, radical environmentalism and the transformation of the family.

One must tip their hat at the breath and scale of change that the left has accomplished, but such radical disruption of society over a relatively short time has had consequences. One that has received relatively little attention is what Christina Hoff Sommers called the “War on Boys.” In her book she describes how public schools have made little boys try to compete in a system designed for little girls and how they are failing. Drop-out rates for boys have increased, and more girls now go to college than boys. The impact of this and the increasing absence of fathers and male role models in the lives of boys from lower- and middle-income families have led to increased joblessness, violence and incarceration, inability to climb the economic ladder and a perpetuation of the cycle of fatherless families.

So when I saw that the Boy Scouts of America executive board is convening on Wednesday to discuss abandoning the organization’s founding moral principles that nurture boys into men, I was saddened, but not surprised. It makes sense that men at the top of the food chain whose boys are insulated, although not immune, from the harmful effects of societal change are behind this effort. Board members James Turley, CEO of Ernst & Young, and Randall Stephenson, CEO of AT&T, are advocating for gay scoutmasters and scouts. They are joined by two big funders, UPS and Merck, that have signaled change or money will disappear.