Divesting in Trumpism

By DON ROLLINS

Two years ago this month, progressives were bracing themselves for the inauguration of Donald Trump, the living, breathing antithesis of the America they imagine. And the new president did not disappoint, doubling down on the same cultist, zero-sum politics utilized on the campaign trail.

Understandably blown away by the true scale of Trump’s mercurialism, ineptitude and penchant for lying, even veteran grassroots liberals spent the better part of year one reckoning with utter political chaos: How to strategize for the long haul when the opposition is led by the most ruthless, reckless, unpredictable chief executive in the modern era?

But galvanized by events and shared values, rank-and-file resistance to Trumpism has since evolved well beyond its reactivist phase. This more strategic approach employs time honored tactics such as public witness, lobbying and fundraising, yet casts a much wider vision by focusing on what some progressive activists term divestment, or the “economics of resistance.”

As applied to Trumpism, today’s progressive divestment movement is a call to distinguish entities (companies, endowments, investment funds, etc.) that support the White House’s means and ends, from those that are opposed, or at least less lucrative.

Such a step is an effective but often costly act of resistance, be it measured in dollars or otherwise:

• A young couple wanting to support an African American-majority bank take out a mortgage a full point higher than the Wells Fargo across the street;

• Seventeen religious denominations incur right-wing criticism by boycotting all Hewlitt Packard products, citing HP’s contracts for surveillance equipment used to track Palestinian civilians, including young children;

• Despite a simple majority vote, the board of a progressive social service agency commits to eliminating all fossil fuel stocks from its retirement plan by 2025.

Micro-divestments like these have a cumulative effect, both in terms of effectiveness and morale. But it’s also a tactic proven to work on the largest of scales.

Given its history of environmental degradation, ExxonMobil would figure to be dead last on the list of petroleum giants to cry foul over the industry’s $6.24 billion and counting divestment. Yet the corporation has continued to stand by an official Exxon blog post from 2014 making the case fossil fuels are ultimately good for the earth, its population and funding for new technology. Divestment, on the other hand, is “...simply a movement that is out of step with reality.”

This is of course, a ludicrous set of claims. But Exxon nonetheless serves as a prime example for divestment as a counter to Trumpism; for in addition to being a poor environmental neighbor to the world, Exxon helped underwrite 2016 federal Republican candidates to the tune of an industry leading $1.36 million — staggering numbers given Exxon is but one corporation in but one industry.

Numbers like these underscore the reality of America in the clutch of Trumpism, and the wake of Citizens United. This grim awareness is all the more reason for progressives, in both micro- and macro-form, to put to good use the economic tools at their disposal.

Don Rollins is a Unitarian Universalist minister and substance abuse counselor living in Pittsburgh, Pa. Email donaldlrollins@gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, February 1, 2019

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