Healing Our World Commentary: Election 2000

By Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D.

Change IS Needed Now - But Let's Do The Math

The world is a sacred vessel
Not to be acted upon.
Whoever acts upon it
   destroys it.
Whoever grasps it
   loses it.
-- Lao Tsu from the "Tao Te Ching"

I have wanted change in the two party system all my adult life. It never made sense to me and as my environmental and social values matured, it became clear that my needs were not being met by either Republicans or Democrats.

But the new support that is evolving for the Green Party could be having an unexpected consequence - insuring a Republican rise to power for many years to come.

As a long time Green Party member and supporter, this new math has taken me by surprise. I don't know why I didn't think of it before, since it is so obvious now.

The fact is that Green Party support comes largely from people who would have voted Democratic as the nearest choice to their values. Rarely do Green converts come from conservative Republicans. This means that Green support, if it grows, will continue to split the Democratic vote into smaller, less viable numbers.

If you do the math, it is clear that very quickly, the conservative Republican vote will be the only clear majority.

Not only people are waiting for the outcome of this election. (Photo courtesy Wildlife and the Environment)

The Republican controlled Congress, as well as past conservative Presidencies, has given us all the data we need to know the consequences of their policies for the Earth and its inhabitants. For years, conservative forces have been infiltrating all levels of government and non-government agencies. Quietly, without media fanfare, anti-environmental and anti-social policy efforts have been going on, even during Democratic presidencies.

The League of Conservation Voters, a national watchdog group that tracks the environmental record of politicians, says as much in its "2000 National Environmental Scorecard."

"Blocked by hostile committee chairmen, few environmental initiatives backed by the administration moved forward for votes," the League stated. "The President's ability to veto bills that he opposed, and his frequent use of the veto threat, often stalled anti-environment legislation well before it could reach his desk. The 106th Congress saw the President use his administrative powers to further his environmental agenda despite strong opposition from Congressional leaders."

The burning oil fields of Kuwait, 1991, a result of the Gulf War. (Photo courtesy Earth Trust)

In the last year, the Clinton administration proposed, and Congress tried to undo, new regulations banning snowmobiles from most national parks and new water management policies to benefit wildlife on the Missouri River. Congress also acted to block the administration from considering stricter standards for arsenic in drinking water and to prevent stronger environmental standards for grazing on public lands.

Here are a few more disturbing examples of anti-environmental riders that you probably won't see covered in the evening news:

• EPA Funding Bill (HR 4635) contains language that could thwart implementation of new water quality regulations and would block new protections against arsenic in drinking water, and prevent the cleanup of contaminated sediments in rivers across the country. It also prevents the agency from gathering information on ozone levels and informing the public when a community's air quality violates the new health standards.

• Congressional foes of the Kyoto agreement to combat global warming by limiting greenhouse gas emissions, have passed a series of riders to appropriations bills that prohibit the President from taking direct actions to implement the treaty. This year Kyoto opponents in Congress proposed sweeping language not only to halt any efforts to carry out the treaty, but also to prohibit efforts to reduce global warming under existing laws and programs.

• In spite of the environmental threats posed by massive mines that span thousands of acres and use highly toxic substances, Congress has not significantly rewritten the federal mining law since it was first passed in 1872. The administration proposed new policies and regulations that would better reflect the realities of modern mining and the environmental threats it poses to our public lands and waterways, but each time, both houses fight these measures down.

• Energy and Water Funding Bill (HR 4733) eliminates funding for the California Bay-Delta Restoration Program and blocks the Army Corps of Engineers from reforming Missouri River dam operations essentially sentencing three endangered species to extinction.

In spite of these threats, and using powers granted by the Antiquities Act of 1906, President Bill Clinton has designated 11 national monuments during his term of office that encompasses more than 3.6 million acres of public lands in six states and the District of Columbia.

The Democrats are not so bad when you look at the environmental and social battles they deal with every day. They face huge oppositions by forces whose power is growing day by day. How many acres do you think a conservative Republican President would designate as off limits to development?

The threats to social programs are equally large and would take many pages to address.

I live my life by idealism and conscience. However, it is a harsh reality of our time that we must protect ourselves from the greater evils along the way while we are practicing our idealism.

Open pit mine (Photo courtesy Eco-Action)

If a third party movement is to become a reality, the Greens must get a viable candidate and start making use of some of the money of its wealthier supporters. Buy a TV network, some radio stations and a newspaper. Many wealthy Greens could afford this.

Green idealism is important, but a viable third party candidate must be savvy in the ways of Washington and be able to withstand and combat the subtle threats to our world that come from within the system. This candidate must do some REAL campaigning, right along side the other two, and speak to the perceived needs of the nation, not just to the progressives. The Green Party needs to start aggressively infiltrating Congress with viable candidates for local races, since the true legislative power of the nation lies in the Senate and the House.

Most importantly, the party agenda must evolve to find some way to convince conservative voters that their needs are being met through recognizing that the environment is crucial to our survival. I think we have to create some way of demonstrating to people that:

• All issues are interconnected.

• The natural world is the source of all life and without it, we are all dead.

• Economic health DOES NOT equal personal, national and planetary health.

• Even if a person's life is focused on family, friends and work, he or she still impacts everyone else and the Earth every moment of every day.

Or maybe we need to band together and work to change the Democratic party to embrace these values more directly.

Whatever we do, this process must begin now. But if the Republicans take this Presidency, I don't know how we are going to find the time, since progressives everywhere are going to be working full time for the next four years trying to prevent the conservative regime from destroying the ecosystems of the nation and the birthrights of our children.

It will be a great four years for the wealthy, though.

If we had only done the math...

RESOURCES

1. Keep tabs on legislators voting records through the League of Conservation Voters at http://www.lcv.org/

2. Project Vote Smart will help you keep an eye on candidates at http://www.vote-smart.org/ 3. The Environmental Defense Fund's Environmental Scorecard at http://www.scorecard.org/ will help you keep track of polluters in your area.

4. Although no longer being maintained, the Clearinghouse on Environmental Advocacy and Research website at http://www.ewg.org/pub/home/clear/by_clear/by_clear.html contains a wealth of information about the anti-environmental movement.

5. Watchdog the media with the help of FAIR: Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting at http://www.fair.org/

6. Resist mining and oil exploration with the help of Project Underground at http://www.moles.org/index.html

7. Follow issues important to our children at the Children's Defense Fund at http://www.childrensdefense.org/ and explore international issues in children's rights at http://boes.org/justice.html

10. Find out who your Congressional representatives are and e-mail them. Tell them that the time is now to start mandating building materials recycling. If you know your Zip code, you can find them at http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ziptoit.html or you can search by state at http://www.webslingerz.com/jhoffman/congress-email.html. You can also find your representatives at http://congress.nw.dc.us/innovate/index.html.

[Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D. is a writer and teacher in Seattle. He can be found puzzled, wondering what the next four years will be like. Please send your thoughts, comments, and visions to him at jackie@healingourworld.com and visit his web site at http://www.healingourworld.com]