Environmentalists and conservationists must be clear eyed and realistic about what is happening in the broader body politic right now. We cannot join the foggy complacency that seems to captivate so many liberals and democrats. We face a very real possibility that the Biden administration is a final island of normalcy in a gathering nightmare of far-right extremism.
Environmentalists work in a matrix of law, regulations, agencies, and courts. Whether you are interested in pollution control or land conservation, our work depends on agencies and courts that respect and follow the norms of democratic process. We require the rule of law. We’ve had a taste of how extremism can affect agencies, in the Reagan years, the W. Bush years, and especially in the Trump years. But we may be looking into a future where these times were mild relative to what could come.
Progressives and liberals of all stripes need to wake up and engage in new ways if we are to save our country and the environment.
Two Headed Monster
There are two facets of the current political reality in America that require our clear-eyed attention. We have a Democratic party that is leaderless. Joe Biden rescued us from Donald Trump, but Biden cannot serve another term at his age and he most likely won’t. Beyond him, no viable candidate has emerged for the Democrats. Few people believe Kamala Harris could win a primary election, much less a national election. Cory Booker, Jon Osoff, Adam Schiff…. The party gropes for a new Obama, someone to emerge from the shadows and lead. This is a crisis.
The republican party is where the action is. The press and the public are transfixed by the extreme drama of GOP politics. The old-guard normal republicans who believe in democracy and the normal function of government are being overwhelmed by the cult of Donald Trump. One only need look at the House race in Wyoming to see this dynamic in play. Liz Cheney was trounced by a Trump loyalist in rural America. Her crime was being disloyal to Trump. As she said, she could have won easily had she adopted his constellation of lies that energizes his “base.”
Trump is laying the groundwork to end American democracy. This is not a paranoid or extreme view. He is recruiting people to run state elections in key states who will reject and subvert anything other than a Trump win in 2024. In all the most important states, Trump governor or secretary of state candidates are teed up to run who have made clear their plans to subvert the 2024 election. They could lose, but they could win and if they do, we can no longer count on voting to determine who “wins” elections and runs the government.
Trump republicans are a minority of the American population. This bears repeating. They are fervid, racist, radical, and determined that American democracy cannot continue if it is going to produce progressive politicians, racially diverse politicians, and people who do not adhere to the right-wing views of Trump and his followers. They are out of patience for democracy because it does not produce the results they want. They know they are a minority, but they believe their views are the most important views of all just as they believe Trump and his successors are the most important people of all. Their vision for America is more important than democracy. This cannot be over emphasized.
At its root, the Trump movement is a culture war. Somehow a large portion of the American population got angry about minorities in our society, and they got angry about “coastal elites”. They despise people who are experts or have a college degree, went to private schools etc. People with intellectual careers are their enemies.
It used to be that Democrats represented the working class. Not anymore. Many workers are angry conservatives now and they want to exact revenge on the elites, the educated, the upper middle class. They have been convinced by the cynical Trump and the likes of Josh Hawley (both products of private schools and family wealth) that intellectuals and liberals are the enemy.
Trump understands this. He is a wealthy white elitist, but he speaks their language. They forgive his privilege because his folksy charism appeals to them. He promises to crush the government for them. He promises chaos, revenge. They are on the war path, frustrated by their economic stagnation caused by both parties creating a system that allows for huge economic disparities in America. The Trump base has been convinced that the educated and the brown skinned people are the source of their despair. Any “expert” that explains the true source of economic pain in America will be rejected as an elite, an enemy.
Permanent Minority Rule?
This political dynamic is extremely dangerous. We need to stop kidding ourselves about what is happening in America. Unless he is indicted for his crimes or unless he dies, Trump will be the republican nominee for President in 2024. He will have people in place across America who will insure he wins, even when he doesn’t. The constitutional crisis he will unleash will be unprecedented. There will be violence and we cannot count on state officials to protect us from the backlash.
This is not the America most people in the United States want. A majority sit in disbelief and horror, wanting only to raise their children in a system of laws and peace.
The hope lies in the fact that our economy, flawed as it is, depends on the rule of law and the continuation of democratic norms. Wall Street, businesses large and small depend on the rule of law to survive. The anarchy Trump promises will destroy American competitiveness. It will ruin business in America and millions of powerful business leaders know it.
The Way Forward
Pay attention to Liz Cheney. She is speaking for a large mass of Americans when she says we must all disregard party or independence and band together to stop Trump. She is offering to lead a movement to stop the anti-American forces of Trump and his mob. She offers a very real solution with the coalition she is building to focus on Trump’s crimes and focus America on his threat. She has financial backing and the podium to split the Republican party and put Trump on the defensive. Progressives should help her, absolutely. She knows better than anyone the depth of Trump’s criminality.
Do we want Liz Cheney to be president? Good question. Can the Democrats come up with a candidate to win against a split Republican party led by Trump? Can Democrats find someone to win after Cheney batters the GOP with their own hypocrisy? If not, then Cheney may have a path to victory and though she is no environmentalist, she believes in the rule of law, in democracy and in the norms that sustain our country. (I have never voted for a republican in my life but could vote for her depending on the answers to the above questions.)
Democrats need to do some serious soul-searching about why the workers of America have lost faith in them. Why have so many people given up on government as a tool of collective progress? Why have so many Democrats fallen under the spell of big money and left the poor behind? Why have we lost the rural vote?
Yes, we need to get money out of politics and end the corrupting influence it has on our system. That is our main challenge, but the radical anti-Americanism of Trump makes that problem a footnote until Trump is removed.
Finally, we need to understand that Trump will not relinquish power if he gets back in the White House. Though he is elderly, he will never leave again. His rule will be a succession of constitutional crises, each worse than the one that preceded it. He and his followers elected at various levels of government will openly disregard and defy their Oaths of Office, their oath to the Constitution.
Environmentalists and others may be in a sort of fog, a fantasy world where the problems detailed above are impossible and extreme, too ugly to confront. Yet this is happening big time and in real time. We cannot get through this crisis with our normal range of behaviors, where we want to elect far left candidates that cannot win state or national elections, where we recede into our bubbles. We face a crisis and need to wake up and join broad coalitions that will protect our futures.
A big dark storm is gathering. It could blow all the work we have done for decades to protect the natural world away. All our work as conservationists and environmentalists depends on the rule of law. Trump has already promised to dismantle federal agencies should he “win” in 2024. He opposes all pollution control efforts. Our future depends on us taking him at his word.
Tom Ribe
