Some vendor executives are louder about their opinions than others. Even as they ask their subordinates to shut up about politics and get in line at the office.

It's not like the university is digging into the closets of vendor executives.

They don't purport to do so. 37signals went way out of their way to confront their customer base with their political takes, and did so not as individual statements of people who happened to be in leadership roles at the firm, but as the firm itself. I don't know that it's going to cost them many customers in the long run, but with respect to the customers they do lose, the saying holds: play stupid games...