The new president’s chief strategist, Stephen Bannon, who until recently operated a Neo-Nazi propaganda outlet, told the New York Times “I want you to quote this. The media here is the opposition party.” Throughout the campaign the spokespeople for the new administration railed against the media. The president has repeatedly called the media “dishonest.” And less than a week earlier, Press Secretary Sean Spicer presented obviously false information about the size of the inauguration crowd in an official statement. This was later characterized by White House advisor Kellyanne Conway as “alternative facts.” Taken together these events have been called the “war on facts” by New York Magazine, Rolling Stone, and others. But the scale is much larger than that. The battle against facts is a single offensive in a greater campaign – a war on faith.
In this case, I’m not talking about faith in God. The faith in peril here is the faith in the social contract, the faith in equal justice, the faith we have in each other to maintain that justice. Even after the Watergate scandal, our society has operated on a basic trust that most of us are following the rules and that justice will be done. This is why we politely wait in line at Disneyland, why we stop at red lights when there are no police in sight, why we don’t go through the “10 items or fewer” lane with two dozen things.
They Told Us Themselves
Both the president and his chief strategist have both even said that the overthrow of social order is their goal. The new president on Fox News, and Bannon told the Daily Beast:
I want to bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today’s establishment.
These aren’t statements about college football taken out of context with the intent to mislead. The president and his advisor are actually talking glowingly about the overthrow of American society.
If you view American culture and society positively, you probably wonder why these men would want such a thing. That’s because for you and me and the vast majority of Americans, our laws and conventions and customs protect us and work to our benefit. We work together to ensure fairness and opportunity for everyone, and we largely don’t let the powerful exploit that power to it’s full extent. If The Rock (who I’m sure is a great guy and would never do this) were to show up and shove me out of the line for Space Mountain, I have every confidence that the whole queue would turn on him and make a scene. But for the wealthy and powerful, they have everything to gain by this breakdown. Why wait in line when you can buy the first place in the queue or intimidate your way into it? Why preserve a public park, open to all, when you could privatize it and keep out the rabble? They already have money. They stand to gain even more and power along with it. Our new president was caught on tape admitting to this philosophy:
When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.
They don’t want to be constrained by our petty rules and conventions. They think they are superior to the rest of us and want to exercise that presumed superiority.
The Actions They Take
Take a look at the cabinet officials this administration is appointing. The choice for secretary of Housing and Urban Development has no experience in government or housing. Betsy DeVos who has been chosen for the Department of Education has made a career as an opponent of public education, advocating that public funds be diverted to private Christian schools. The man appointed to lead federal civil rights enforcement was deemed too racist to be confirmed as a federal judge. Former Florida governor Rick Perry, who once wanted to abolish the Department of Energy, and didn’t even know its role, has been nominated to lead it.
The new president has even assaulted the credibility of the American intelligence community, usually well regarded by conservatives. He attacked the director of the CIA and compared the American intelligence apparatus to Nazis. The American public follows the rules and respects the government because we believe that more often than not, our government does right by us. What better way to destroy faith in government and “destroy the establishment” than to attack public servants, and to fill vital government functions with individuals who are openly and specifically hostile to those same functions.
Longtime conventions of the presidency have been broken. For fifty years, presidential candidates have released their tax returns. Our current president offered delays and excuses before finally refusing completely. Instead of divesting himself of his business interests or placing them in a blind trust, he left them in the care of his children presenting a clear conflict of interest. He made his son-in-law an official advisor, defying presidential norms against nepotism and has included his daughter in official visits with foreign governments. The new First Lady has even maintained her residence in New York at great public expense. The public will come to understand that the presidency is just an ancillary office to his private business interests, directly undermining our highest public office.
The necessity of public trust is not limited to government itself. The public benefits of a trustworthy and open press was clear even at the beginning of the Republic. Constitutional protection for it is enshrined in the first amendment. Yet in recent years we’ve been told to hold it in contempt. Certain outlets deride the press as “the liberal media” and assure their audience that their brand alone delivers the truth, in spite of research to the contrary. During the most recent election our social media sites were flooded with propaganda and misinformation that is being called “fake news.” Outlandishly false but oft-repeated stories like the one about the fictional pizza parlor child sex ring erodes the public trust in journalism. And misleading partisan clickbait does the same by consciously misinterpreting real events to evoke an emotional response from a particular audience. If the public are not collectively aware of events, or we have been trained to disbelieve anything we dislike, we’re not inclined to take the appropriate actions.
How to Respond
Unfortunately, the nature of an assault on our faith in our public institutions makes it difficult to counter. We cannot respond to an erosion of trust by simply trusting harder. When there is a loss of trust, people have to work together to repair it. We must resist the urge to give in to lazy cynicism. There are actions we can take. We must think critically about what we are told – who benefits from this idea, what facts support it. We are told “All politicians are corrupt.” Who does that benefit? The corrupt who are equated with those who are not. We are told “Voting doesn’t matter.” That benefits the interests of the generally wealthier individuals who always turn out to vote.
On that same note, call your congressional representatives. It doesn’t matter whether they care about us personally. They do care about our votes. Buckets of cash from special interests do not directly elect them. American citizens do, and when we call and make demands, our officials are put on notice.
We must keep ourselves informed. That means reading – and paying for – a serious newspaper, the Washington Post, the New York Times, The LA Times. It doesn’t matter. It also means turning off the stream of propaganda, clickbait, and sensationalism: US Uncut. New Century Times. The Drudge Report. The Daily Caller. Breitbart. None of these produce serious journalism. They’re propaganda designed to enrage and rally their side against the enemy. Block them all. Likewise turn off cable news. CNN is not part of some liberal crusade, but these days they are more likely to present a special about a funny looking bird than serious analysis. If there is a crisis unfolding live on television, your local broadcasters will be covering it. Otherwise, you’ll get more facts and more nuance from a newspaper.
Comments are closed.