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Now
Yes it's great to be alive, and we are
happy about the elections, not because we like the winners, but
because we do not like many of the losers. Let's face it, it
was still a razor thin victory and the elected Democrats are
hardly better than the Republicans they are replacing. Democrats
will be taking money from the same corporations and, of course,
keeping some of it for themselves. There is no reason to believe
this batch is any better than the others, and if I were Karl
Rove, I'd feel pretty good about my prospects in two years.
Despite all of this, there
are some positive trends for conservationists. If being too
green remains a political liability, then being anti-green now
has it's own set of problems. I watched the returns in the San
Francisco Bay Area at the home of famous author and ecological
economist Paul Hawkin, and the mood in hills above Mill Valley
was generally very upbeat. Later in the evening, hours after
all the polls had closed, it seemed like the eyes of the world
were focused on this one race in Montana. Josh was covering the
event live in Great Falls, and said you could really visualize
the Cinderella story as the organic farmer morphed into a Senator
before the very eyes of Montana Democrats. Jon Tester was hanging
on by a thread, and his victory would guarantee that Democrats
would control the Senate. Tester ran against corruption and for
the environment. His victory was due in part from the strong
support that he received from local environmental activists.
According to the polls, the
environment was also one of the most important issues to California
voters. Although practically every environmental group in the
State endorsed Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides,
he was soundly beaten in his effort to unseat the popular Republican
Governator. Yet these days even Arnold is leaning green. He wants
to get serious about global warming, and has committed billions
of dollars to funding alternative energy. Arnold may be the greenest
governor in the U.S., and he offers some hope that Republicans
will see the advantage in taking leadership on climate change
instead of burying their heads in the Tarsands.
Two years ago Josh and I were
in the Union Club watching the election returns. The country
was polarized into a map of Red and Blue states, and Montana
was in the Red. Yet Montana had just sent a new Democratic Governor
and several state Legislators to Helena in a hard fought election.
George W. Bush had won the popular vote in Montana, but the winds
of change were already being felt in the Mountain West. It was
then that a movement began that would eventually cost Conrad
Burns the election and Republicans both the House and the Senate.
The swing vote in Montana belonged to the environmentalists;
many like Jim Dayton of Missoula, who immediately after the 2004
elections began to plan the overthrow of the rest of the crooks
and hypocrites that were masquerading as conservative, god-fearing
friends of the working families.
Two other factors are at work
here, and one is demographic, that being the influx of new people
from other, more liberal regions on the country. They are predominately
white and well to do, and as a group they are well educated.
This demographic rule does have one exception. If they are rich
they can still turn out Republican. The second is the incompetence
of the Conservatives, and by that I don't mean their incompetence
in the election that they just lost. They have failed to deliver
on any of their promises; and they were seen as too close to
the corrupt corporate power structure in Washington DC that they
ran against. This was best demonstrated by bungled the privatizations
of the Montana Power, which drove up the costs of electricity
to customers across the state, and other corporate giveaways
to big out-of-state businesses. It was the Montana Power scandal
that Tester cited as his reason to run for public office.
The other reason why the Republicans
lost Montana's independent vote was their failure to realize
that many conservatives in the state were uneasy with the Republican
stand on the environment. New economic realities, like tourism
and the amenities lifestyle, which are driving the current real
estate boom, are now the mainstays of the state's economy. Less
of Montana's economy is dependent on logging, mining and grazing
dollars. This made it possible for Tester, an organic lentil
farmer from the high plains, to thread the needle of Rocky Montana
politics, appealing to voters in both eastern and western regions
of this notoriously divided state.
In the end, the Conservatives
falling popularity had more to do with public perceptions of
the character of the Republicans themselves. Not just the money
and the sex, or even the war, but these career politicians didn't
seem to believe in anything except their own wealth and power.
They seem addicted to golf and fancy hotels. The voters could
see that not only do these guys enjoy great privilege, they didn't
even have to play by the same rules that everyone else does.
They lost their outsider status. Yet even with all of this going
against them, had not the national grassroots effort combined
with the weight of the Democrats massive TV and get out the vote
machine, this election could have gone much differently. In the
end, Tester received a nano-majority. That has so far been the
reality of 21st century electoral politics.
This last election proved what
we have been saying here at Lowbagger.org over these last two
years. Environmentalists wield tremendous power, and our only
limitation is how we use it. The defeat of Richard Pombo in California
is perhaps the best example of this power. A week before the
election, just as in Montana, hundreds volunteers from the Sierra
Club, Defenders of Wildlife, the Humane Society of the United
States and many other groups were pounding the pavement in an
effort to get out the vote. It was a group effort, from the large
national organizations to individual volunteers in Pombo's district
who had struck a blow deep in the enemy camp.
This is not the first time
an election has been decided on a candidate's environmental record,
but it is certainly the most significant victory in memory, and
demonstrates that the environmental movement is growing stronger
every day. The secret to our success is no doubt due to the fact
that environmental problems are getting more and more serious,
but it's also a testament to our tenacity. No one will hunt you
down and pummel you with a big stick quicker than an environmentalist.
We need to use this big stick more often.
This is why I have stressed
optimism over cynicism and bold visions over weak compromises.
What draws people to the environmental movement is most of all
the strength of our vision, not our political skills. Nevertheless
we will need to continue to hone these skills, knowing that we
can succeed in getting the politicians of the world to abandon
short term political goals for real long planning, and to take
strong measures to addresses the state of the Earth. We need
to demand politics that seek to transform the political landscape
rather than to simply adjust to the status quo.
Make no mistake; we will need
to hold this new batch of professional liars and crooks accountable
just as we have the ones who are now packing their bags. Many
of these new members are going to need an education, and if they
can't learn, then they need to realize that they can face the
same fate as Pompo and Burns. A swarm of volunteer eco-terrorists
will be knocking on every door in their districts and letting
them know what a scumbag they really are when it comes to the
environment.
Now is the time for boldness.
Real action is needed immediately on climate, biodiversity and
population growth. These issues cannot wait, and are all connected
by the process of globalization that drives them all. The next
two years are critical. Environmentalists need to send a loud
and clear message that not only will they work hard during the
election cycles, but every day in-between in pressure campaigns
to hold both the government and the large corporations' feet
to the fire. We need to hear politicians talk about what they
are going to do about these problems. If they can find the backbone
to stand against this criminal war, why can't they stand up to
the energy companies who are threatening our very future?
I am one that still believes
that it was direct action that has made the difference. Since
Earth Day 1970, environmental policy has been created on the
front lines; by Lois Gibbs in Love Canal, by the Abalone Alliance
at the Seabrook Nuclear Power Station, by Greenpeace at Ground
Zero and Earth First! in the Old Growth Forests It was direct
action campaigns in the field that took the fight straight to
the enemy and that has moved public opinion the furthest and
the fastest.
Since the events of 9/11, non-violence
direct action has taken a beating. Already reeling from the globally
televised violence and anarchy of Seattle, environmentalists
increasingly felt themselves under the micro scope, afraid to
be branded as terrorists if they broke any law, and even those
who supported the idea of civil disobedience were fearful of
extreme punishment as a result of new laws like the so-called
Patriot Act. It became a self fulfilling prophesy.
Hopefully now the radical environmental
will go back on the offensive. I have argued here and elsewhere,
we have been to blame for much of our own fear. We became so
afraid of the government that we were not as vigorous in challenging
the injustices that we saw daily. We were sidetracked by other
issues simply because we thought that they would get more traction.
By abandoning direct action in the defense of the Earth, we almost
lost our voice.
Compared to the size of our
opposition, the conservation movement remains small. Despite
our small numbers, the public has always been supportive of our
goals. That we don't have a voting majority among the electorate
is not surprising and does not mean we are not able to influence
policy. This election proves that we can be an important part
of the political opposition without compromising our values,
as some have suggested. I believe we will attract more support
in the future if we stay true to our mission and not try to soft-pedal
the truth. There are now plenty of wishy-washy environmentalists
out there on both sides of the isle. We will still need a loud,
confrontational and even more radical conservation movement than
ever before. We need to be able to exert pressure on whichever
party is in power, even the Green Party.
A lot has happened during the
last two years. Much of what did happen did so outside of Washington
D.C. or San Francisco. Premature reports of the death of environmentalism
notwithstanding, the grass roots environmental movement is very
much alive and well in America. Like blue jeans and rock 'n roll,
some things never go out of style. Four years ago, Al Gore ran
away from the environment. Two years ago it barely surfaced as
a political issue. After this year, anyone running for office
will have to have environmental credentials unless they are in
Utah, and who can tell, even Utah may no longer be safe?
CounterPunch
Speakers Bureau Sick of sit-on-the-Fence speakers, tongue-tied and timid?
CounterPunch Editors Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St Clair
are available to speak forcefully on ALL the burning issues,
as are other CounterPunchers seasoned in stump oratory. Call
CounterPunch Speakers Bureau, 1-800-840-3683. Or email beckyg@counterpunch.org.
