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March 31, 2007

Environmental Apathy or Christian Fundamentalism?

by AltHippo @ 7:01 pm. Filed under Uncategorized

Sometimes I feel like politics is like a restaurant where you go in, and the hostess gives you the choice of one of two sections you can sit in, neither one of which is what you had in mind. Would you like Smoking or Torture? Bankruptcy or Permanent War? Or, as the title of this post suggests: would you prefer to be ignored by the Democratic Party, or victimized by the Republicans?

Since this is the result of a conversation I had at Drinking Liberally last Thursday, it may help if I put it in that context. The discussion began with who we liked in the 2008 presidential race, and who we’d likely support. Inevitably, the question of Hillary Clinton came up, and I expressed the view that if Senator Clinton were the Democratic nominee, I’d have to look seriously at a third party.

To that someone replied: “I’ve got one word for you. Ralph Nader.”

Fair enough. The world may never recover from Nader’s 2000 Green Party candidacy. I’m not even sure if the Green Party has recovered.

Another said: “In our system of government, it is essentially a choice between the two parties.”
The first one said: “When the Democrats have a comfortable majority, then there’ll be room for a third party nominee. We’re not there yet.”

The problem, as I see it, is that while the Republican party spends a great deal of effort making sure that their base is taken care of, the same thing doesn’t appear to be true with the Democrats. The environmental movement, for instance, is a natural part of the Democratic Party base, but, how shall I put it? Maybe another analogy will help.

If the Democratic Party base is like the Brady Bunch, then the environmental movement is like Jan Brady. Greg has problems with the football coach. Kind of like foreign policy vis-a-vis Iran. Peter’s voice just changed, and can’t sing with the band. In the analogy, like our veterans returning from foreign wars. Cindy just lost a tooth, but learned how to whistle. That’s a tribute to a future universal healthcare sytem. Bobby just broke Carol’s antique vase, and now Marcia has to get the cheerleader’s to raise the money so they can by a new one. Fortunately, Alice’s famous oatmeal cookies save the day. That’s a tougher one in the analogy department, but I’m pretty sure it has something to do with saving Social Security. Mike Brady really wanted to do serious acting, and AIDS awareness. Or, at least Robert Reed, the guy who played him did. In these analogies it’s hard to remember where life leaves off and role playing begins.

Jan Brady is like the way the Democratic Party sees environmentalists. She gets talked about, but the other kids take up so much energy, that she’s never front and center. Okay, there was the episode where she crashed her bike, got glasses and invented an imaginary boyfriend, but I can’t be the only one who found that kind of sad.

The Democratic Party certainly talks about the environment in a way much better than the Republicans do. I just wish that talk would turn into action.

For instance, I was trying to find what Hillary Clinton’s views are on CAFE standards. If you’re not familiar with CAFE standards, they’re an average figure of fuel efficiency for a manufacturer’s fleet of cars and trucks. For the last ten years they haven’t increased. On this key environmental topic we’re very different from the rest of the world.

Here’s a 2005 article from Grist on the subject:

And where were leading Democrats this summer when the energy bill chockablock with Big Oil handouts — and embarrassingly weak on support for renewable energy and efficiency — was being rammed through Congress? In June, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) introduced an amendment to the bill that would have moderately increased fuel-economy standards for automobiles, but it got support from only 28 senators — not including Clinton and John Kerry (D-Mass.).

“It was clear that the amendment didn’t have enough votes to pass,” explained Wayland, “so some Dems decided they didn’t want to expend political capital on a vote that would alienate potential campaign support from Detroit.”

In the end, more than half of Democrats in the Senate voted in favor of the full energy bill, including Durbin, Lieberman, Obama, and Cantwell. If Clinton wants to be a leader on clean, forward-looking energy policy, she could start by convincing her own Democratic colleagues.

With anger over soaring fuel costs and anxiety over U.S. dependence on foreign oil, the nation is primed as never before to hear substantive new energy proposals. Whether Clinton — or any other leader, Democrat or Republican — can meet that demand with more than lofty rhetoric remains to be seen.

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One Response to “Environmental Apathy or Christian Fundamentalism?”

  1. KathyF Says:
    April 1st, 2007 at 6:12 am

    “Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!” says Jan, stamping her foot.

    Our favorite Brady line. Brilliant post, btw. Maybe Hillary is like Mom Brady, trying to appeal to everyone, appease everyone, but not quite succeeding.

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