{"id":34597,"date":"2017-02-08T16:20:00","date_gmt":"2017-02-08T16:20:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-09-22T14:57:48","modified_gmt":"2020-09-22T14:57:48","slug":"9597-donald-trump-and-steve-bannon-have-turned-the-white-house-against-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/business\/9597-donald-trump-and-steve-bannon-have-turned-the-white-house-against-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump and Steve Bannon have turned the White House against America"},"content":{"rendered":"

W<\/span>e\u2019re not in a normal historical moment. Congress is acting as expected under a Republican government. The assault on the environment and working people is wrong, but predictable. What\u2019s coming from the Oval Office, though, is unprecedented. It\u2019s less the White House than the Black Tower, sending out its Breitbartian orcs and alt-right winged harpies to poison the politics of a nation.<\/p>\n

Two types of assaults are under way. One, instigated mostly by Congress, is painful. Last week, for instance, they managed in one morning to both end rules which sought to <\/span>prevent<\/a> coal companies from polluting streams and regulations which made it harder<\/a> for oil companies to bribe foreign governments.<\/p>\n

There are dozens of these changes, all of them with hideous consequences: people will suffer and die as we roll back environmental laws and prune budgets for housing and medical care. But these are, more or less, the changes we were going to see if, say, Marco Rubio or Jeb Bush had gotten elected with a pliant Congress: they are straight from the Koch Brothers\/Heritage Foundation wishlist (and some of them are not that far from what Bill Clinton, say, did by \u201cending welfare as we know it\u201d).<\/span><\/p>\n

All are noxious, all need vigorous opposition, and for the moment most of them we\u2019re going to lose, because we simply don\u2019t have the votes: these are precisely the changes the nation\u2019s billionaires hired Congress to make.<\/p>\n

But the Bannon\/Trump administration is attacking us in a second way as well. It has audaciously targeted the main pillars of a civilized nation in a way we\u2019ve rarely seen before, a way that would not have occurred to Lindsey Graham or Carly Fiorina. And these are the battles we dare not lose.<\/p>\n

The immigration ban, for instance, was a calculated assault on Muslims, but also on morality, on simple kindness. It was a probe to find out if Americans would come to the defense of a minority that we\u2019d been told to fear and hate. And it failed \u2013 not because a federal judge struck down the ban, but because Americans in their millions poured into airport baggage terminals and city squares.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/strong><\/p>\n

As one placard said proudly: \u201cFirst they came for the Muslims, and we said: not today, motherfucker.\u201d The outpouring was not a show of Muslim strength \u2013 there really isn\u2019t much Muslim strength in America. It was a demonstration that, for the moment, our moral commitment to the underdog still holds.<\/p>\n

But there are no guarantees: morality can bend pretty easily in the face of fear, and you know that Bannon and Trump are counting on a real-life Bowling Green massacre to tilt things their way. And in any event, morality is the not the only pillar they\u2019re after. Next on the list is reason: the attack on climate science is, in fact, an attack on science itself, on the enterprise that undergirds modernity.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s already clear that the federal government will be doing nothing to help with global warming (Trump\u2019s cabinet choices made that evident in their confirmation hearings.) But if the administration actually withdraws from the Paris climate accords, it will turn its back on the most painstaking scientific process humans have ever undertaken, a half-century global effort to understand what we\u2019re doing to our atmosphere and what that will do to our future.
\n\u200b
\nBannon and Trump hate reason precisely because it places limits on their actions \u2013 even Nietzchean supermen have to bow to physics. \u201cI alone can fix it\u201d is Trump\u2019s narcissistic motto \u2013 but since he can\u2019t fix the heat-trapping properties of certain gases, they must be denied.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prepare for attacks as well on tradition and on common sense, since these too are bulwarks against the kind of personality cult that tempts Trump and Bannon.<\/span><\/p>\n

You\u2019ve already seen the first sorties: since the separation of powers is the longest-standing of American ideas, the tweeted hostility to a \u201cso-called judge\u201d crosses a line only Richard Nixon ever flirted with. The bizarre phone call to Australia\u2019s prime minister is less bizarre if you think of it as one step towards eroding the commonsense notion that we can\u2019t go it alone, that in an interlocked world nations need to be able to work with each other.<\/p>\n

These assaults will be hard for progressives to handle. There\u2019s plenty of ugly in our traditions. And modernity can be mixed blessing enough that reason is an often unappealing goddess. Still, so far we\u2019re doing pretty well: the outpouring of resistance is unmatched in recent history. And we\u2019ve got more weapons of our own: Solidarity, Wit, the remarkable alchemy that is Nonviolence. Also the cast of Hamilton, and a Vast Stockpile of Pink Knitted Caps. And we will need them all.<\/p>\n

We can\u2019t know how the battle will finish, only that it will be fought. This is, quite suddenly, the story of our time.<\/p>\n

This article was originally published <\/em><\/span>here<\/a> by the Guardian. And is republished here with permission. China Dialogue is part of the Guardian Environmental Network.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The White House in the Time of Trump has seen unprecedented attacks on pillars of society and civilization, writes Bill Mckibben\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":59331,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[758],"tags":[520,547],"hashtags":[],"country":[],"class_list":["post-34597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-coal","tag-fossil-fuels"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDonald Trump and Steve Bannon have turned the White House against America | Dialogue Earth<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The White House in the Time of Trump has seen unprecedented attacks on pillars of society and civilization, writes Bill Mckibben\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/business\/9597-donald-trump-and-steve-bannon-have-turned-the-white-house-against-america\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Donald Trump and Steve Bannon have turned the White House against America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The White House in the Time of Trump has seen unprecedented attacks on pillars of society and civilization, writes Bill Mckibben\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/business\/9597-donald-trump-and-steve-bannon-have-turned-the-white-house-against-america\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dialogue Earth\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-02-08T16:20:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-09-22T14:57:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/24120120029_38478f1764_b.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Bill McKibben\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/business\/9597-donald-trump-and-steve-bannon-have-turned-the-white-house-against-america\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/business\/9597-donald-trump-and-steve-bannon-have-turned-the-white-house-against-america\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Bill McKibben\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/6598bcc0776169cdff693701728102a9\"},\"headline\":\"Donald Trump and Steve Bannon have turned the White House against America\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-02-08T16:20:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-09-22T14:57:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/business\/9597-donald-trump-and-steve-bannon-have-turned-the-white-house-against-america\/\"},\"wordCount\":872,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/business\/9597-donald-trump-and-steve-bannon-have-turned-the-white-house-against-america\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/24120120029_38478f1764_b.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Coal\",\"Fossil fuels\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Business\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/business\/9597-donald-trump-and-steve-bannon-have-turned-the-white-house-against-america\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/business\/9597-donald-trump-and-steve-bannon-have-turned-the-white-house-against-america\/\",\"name\":\"Donald Trump and Steve Bannon have turned the White House against America | Dialogue Earth\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/business\/9597-donald-trump-and-steve-bannon-have-turned-the-white-house-against-america\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/business\/9597-donald-trump-and-steve-bannon-have-turned-the-white-house-against-america\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/24120120029_38478f1764_b.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-02-08T16:20:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-09-22T14:57:48+00:00\",\"description\":\"The White House in the Time of Trump has seen unprecedented attacks on pillars of society and civilization, writes Bill Mckibben\u00a0\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/business\/9597-donald-trump-and-steve-bannon-have-turned-the-white-house-against-america\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/business\/9597-donald-trump-and-steve-bannon-have-turned-the-white-house-against-america\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/business\/9597-donald-trump-and-steve-bannon-have-turned-the-white-house-against-america\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/24120120029_38478f1764_b.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/24120120029_38478f1764_b.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":683,\"caption\":\"Donald Trump standing on a podium\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/business\/9597-donald-trump-and-steve-bannon-have-turned-the-white-house-against-america\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Donald Trump and Steve Bannon have turned the White House against America\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/\",\"name\":\"Dialogue Earth\",\"description\":\"Global climate and environment news\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#organization\",\"name\":\"\u5bf9\u8bdd\u5730\u7403\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Dialogue-Earth-Symbol-Logo_Black-Text.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Dialogue-Earth-Symbol-Logo_Black-Text.png\",\"width\":256,\"height\":256,\"caption\":\"\u5bf9\u8bdd\u5730\u7403\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DialogueEarth_\",\"\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/DialogueEarth.English\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/dialogue.earth\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/dialogueearth\/\"],\"publishingPrinciples\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/about\/\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/6598bcc0776169cdff693701728102a9\",\"name\":\"Bill McKibben\",\"description\":\"Bill McKibben is a writer and journalist. His books include The End of Nature (1989), Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age (2004) and Wandering Home (2005).\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/author\/billmckibben\/\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/author\/billmckibben\/\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Donald Trump and Steve Bannon have turned the White House against America | Dialogue Earth","description":"The White House in the Time of Trump has seen unprecedented attacks on pillars of society and civilization, writes Bill Mckibben\u00a0","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/business\/9597-donald-trump-and-steve-bannon-have-turned-the-white-house-against-america\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Donald Trump and Steve Bannon have turned the White House against America","og_description":"The White House in the Time of Trump has seen unprecedented attacks on pillars of society and civilization, writes Bill Mckibben\u00a0","og_url":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/business\/9597-donald-trump-and-steve-bannon-have-turned-the-white-house-against-america\/","og_site_name":"Dialogue Earth","article_published_time":"2017-02-08T16:20:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-09-22T14:57:48+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":683,"url":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/24120120029_38478f1764_b.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Bill McKibben","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/business\/9597-donald-trump-and-steve-bannon-have-turned-the-white-house-against-america\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/business\/9597-donald-trump-and-steve-bannon-have-turned-the-white-house-against-america\/"},"author":{"name":"Bill McKibben","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/6598bcc0776169cdff693701728102a9"},"headline":"Donald Trump and Steve Bannon have turned the White House against America","datePublished":"2017-02-08T16:20:00+00:00","dateModified":"2020-09-22T14:57:48+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/business\/9597-donald-trump-and-steve-bannon-have-turned-the-white-house-against-america\/"},"wordCount":872,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/business\/9597-donald-trump-and-steve-bannon-have-turned-the-white-house-against-america\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/24120120029_38478f1764_b.jpg","keywords":["Coal","Fossil fuels"],"articleSection":["Business"],"inLanguage":"en"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/business\/9597-donald-trump-and-steve-bannon-have-turned-the-white-house-against-america\/","url":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/business\/9597-donald-trump-and-steve-bannon-have-turned-the-white-house-against-america\/","name":"Donald Trump and Steve Bannon have turned the White House against America | Dialogue Earth","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/business\/9597-donald-trump-and-steve-bannon-have-turned-the-white-house-against-america\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/business\/9597-donald-trump-and-steve-bannon-have-turned-the-white-house-against-america\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/24120120029_38478f1764_b.jpg","datePublished":"2017-02-08T16:20:00+00:00","dateModified":"2020-09-22T14:57:48+00:00","description":"The White House in the Time of Trump has seen unprecedented attacks on pillars of society and civilization, writes Bill Mckibben\u00a0","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/business\/9597-donald-trump-and-steve-bannon-have-turned-the-white-house-against-america\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/business\/9597-donald-trump-and-steve-bannon-have-turned-the-white-house-against-america\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/business\/9597-donald-trump-and-steve-bannon-have-turned-the-white-house-against-america\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/24120120029_38478f1764_b.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/24120120029_38478f1764_b.jpg","width":1024,"height":683,"caption":"Donald Trump standing on a podium"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/business\/9597-donald-trump-and-steve-bannon-have-turned-the-white-house-against-america\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Donald Trump and Steve Bannon have turned the White House against America"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/","name":"Dialogue Earth","description":"Global climate and environment news","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#organization","name":"\u5bf9\u8bdd\u5730\u7403","url":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Dialogue-Earth-Symbol-Logo_Black-Text.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Dialogue-Earth-Symbol-Logo_Black-Text.png","width":256,"height":256,"caption":"\u5bf9\u8bdd\u5730\u7403"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/DialogueEarth_","","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/DialogueEarth.English","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/dialogue.earth\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/dialogueearth\/"],"publishingPrinciples":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/about\/"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/6598bcc0776169cdff693701728102a9","name":"Bill McKibben","description":"Bill McKibben is a writer and journalist. His books include The End of Nature (1989), Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age (2004) and Wandering Home (2005).","url":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/author\/billmckibben\/","sameAs":["https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/author\/billmckibben\/"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34597"},{"taxonomy":"hashtags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtags?post=34597"},{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=34597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}