President Trump is engaged in a whole-of-government assault on American society. So we need a whole-of-society response.
The 5 million Americans who took to the streets on June 14 mark an excellent start. And the demonstrations must continue, but they are not enough.
The ultimate weapon against tyranny in a democracy is the popular vote, but the next opportunity to use it is nearly 500 days away, when voters will elect 468 senators and House members. Our highest priority should be to elect people with the integrity and backbone to remove Trump, repair the damage he is doing, and restore checks and balances.
Otherwise, Trump will remain president another 1,300 days. And we have seen the damage he has already done in just 150.
Rather than a thousand unconnected stovepipes of decency, we need a massive national movement against Trumpism’s assault on fundamental American freedoms and stability.
For example, Trump and red states are warring against private-sector diversity and environmental-social-governance or ESG policies. Businesses and institutions should be free to adopt those policies if they find them valuable. The government has no business forcing private entities to drop responsible policies that reflect their values.
Trump’s most pervasive damage is his purge of government efforts to protect the public from climate change. He ignores the longstanding warnings from intelligence and military officials that global warming is undermining national security. He has decimated the science programs that allow us to understand global warming better and predict its impacts.
He declared a phony energy emergency to expedite production of climate-altering fossil fuels. He has frozen incentives Congress created in 2022 to encourage the nation’s transition to free clean energy. He has curtailed free speech among the government’s 3 million civilian employees by banning “woke” words from government websites such as climate change, air pollution, women, science-based, diversity, community, and social justice.
Society has the power to push back. There are nearly 32,000 environmental organizations in the U.S., with 150,000 combined employees and assets of $83 billion. Researchers say no more than 25 percent of a population is needed to bring about significant social or political change. More than 40 percent of Americans identify themselves as environmentalists.
Yet only half as many Americans self-identify as environmentalists today compared to the 1990s. That’s because opponents of environmental protection have politicized the issue. One writer notes, “The image of environmentalism and environmental advocacy itself has become entwined in the political polarization that has infected all aspects of political life.” Environmentalists should collaborate to disentangle ecological stewardship from politics and disinformation. Everybody benefits from clean air, clean water, nontoxic foods, ecosystem services, and stable weather.
There are 1.5 million non-government organizations in America, many focused on issues like good government, social justice, the rule of law, and academic freedom. These organizations should collaborate to rebrand the businesses that kowtow to and empower Trump — the collaborators, capitulators, backtrackers, and greenwashers.
The collaborators include the dozens of corporations that donated money to Trump’s second election and inauguration — the major oil companies and corporations ranging from Amazon and Uber to Meta, Johnson & Johnson, AT&T, Comcast, Coca-Cola, Airbnb, and Coinbase.
The capitulators include law firms, universities, and other institutions that have given in to Trump’s bullying and made deals with him. Some are already paying the price. Students protested after Columbia University surrendered to Trump’s attacks. The Wall Street Journal reports at least 11 major companies, including Oracle, Morgan Stanley, Microsoft, and McDonald’s, are moving away from law firms that capitulated to Trump. They are switching to firms that refused to make deals with the president.
The backtrackers include companies that promised to achieve net-zero carbon emissions over the next 25 years but are now reneging. Bloomberg lists ExxonMobil, Shell, HSBC, Wells Fargo, Delta, Walmart, Coca-Cola, and Pepsico as examples.
America’s six largest banks — Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, Citibank, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan — have withdrawn from an industry climate alliance. ESG Dive, an online newsletter, says that U.S. banks provided nearly $290 trillion in fossil-fuel financing last year.
Some oil companies argue that the sudden surge in energy demand from data centers, artificial intelligence, and crypto mining requires increased production. However, the U.S. Department of Energy says, “Solar energy, land-based wind energy, battery storage, and energy efficiency are some of the most rapidly scalable and cost-competitive ways to meet increased electricity demand from data centers.”
The greenwashers declare they are environmentally friendly when they aren’t. Before Trump was elected last fall, Forbes reported that the number of companies setting net-zero carbon targets grew by 40 percent between June 2022 and October 2023. However, only 4 percent of the companies were on track to keep those promises, revealing “a disconnect between corporate rhetoric and reality.”
Thirteen months ago, Oil Change International found that the carbon-cutting plans of Chevron, Conoco Phillips, and ExxonMobil were “grossly insufficient.” One estimate is that five oil majors will cause $300 billion annually in climate damages by 2030, just five years from now.
In short, America needs an aggressive, well-funded, society-wide campaign in which the many defenders of social justice, environmental justice, economic justice, and democracy join forces to dispel MAGA disinformation and restore an acceptable degree of freedom, common endeavor, and comity.
As we have seen with forever-problems like strident tribalism, the wealth gap, and climate change, government policies are subject to change with every new president and Congress. Consistency comes from sustained public support for what is moral and right.
We need to build that support from the ground up now, because the nation’s health is deteriorating rapidly under Trump and MAGA.
William S. Becker, a former senior official in the Wisconsin Department of Justice, is a co-editor and contributor in “Democracy Unchained: How to Rebuild Government for the People,” and a contributor to “Democracy in a Hotter Time.” He is currently executive director of the Presidential Climate Action Project.