One of the themes that
I revisit through these blog posts is the manner in which clean water, clean
air, and living in a sound environment have become politicized. What we
Americans have valued in common has been transformed into a
liberal-conservative conflict, with the moneyed interests largely supporting
GOP candidates and representatives. While they also have Democratic politicians
in their pockets—you only have to look at Democrats like West Virginia’s Joe
Manchin to see how energy dollars pay for the votes of Democrats—the issue of
the environment too often falls along a divide between the Democratic Party and
the Grand Old Party.
This
news from the League of Conservation Voters goes to show just how far we have
drifted into being a country that has a government that does not serve its citizens.
The League judged this last Congress as the one most hostile to the environment
in the last 40 years. The environmental organization was particularly scathing
in its comments about the GOP controlled House, which systematically blocked advances
on climate change legislation.
Some
of the legislation that the report discussed is the stuff that only schoolyard
bullies would dream up. H.R. 4078, the Red Tape and Small Business Job Creation
Act, sponsored by Arizona representative Tim Griffin would halt all new public
safeguards, no matter how much they are needed or how many people they might
help, as long as unemployment remains above six percent. Never mind that high
levels of unemployment look likely for several years to come or that much of
what the GOP has been doing has kept unemployment at high levels for years
already. The Stop the War on Coal Act would repeal the scientific finding by
the EPA that greenhouse gasses endanger human health and the environment.
The
list goes on, Keystone tar sands oil, cleaning up the Gulf from the BP
disaster, general conservation, genetically modified salmon, etc., etc. Besides
a list of disasters, I see very little of a democratic process working when I
see a report like this. Is public financing of political campaigns a remedy? We
need to do something before too long, before our world becomes too warm and our
lakes and rivers are once again treated like public dumping grounds and sewers.
