India RPCV Carl Pope says that the trick to getting John Kerry elected is not swaying undecided voters, but persuading those already willing to vote for the Democrat to actually go to the polls
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India RPCV Carl Pope says that the trick to getting John Kerry elected is not swaying undecided voters, but persuading those already willing to vote for the Democrat to actually go to the polls
India RPCV Carl Pope says that the trick to getting John Kerry elected is not swaying undecided voters, but persuading those already willing to vote for the Democrat to actually go to the polls
India RPCV Carl Pope says that the trick to getting John Kerry elected is not swaying undecided voters, but persuading those already willing to vote for the Democrat to actually go to the polls
Sierra Club chief warns of ecological consequences of Bush second term
2004-10-04
By Jim Phillips
Athens NEWS Senior Writer
The head of the country's best-known environmental group told an audience at Ohio University Friday that the trick to getting John Kerry elected is not swaying undecided voters, but persuading those already willing to vote for the Democrat to actually go to the polls.
"It is not necessary to persuade a single undecided voter," argued Carl Pope, executive director of the national Sierra Club. Pope, who maintains that George W. Bush is reversing a century of environmental progress, said the group of "decided but unmotivated" citizens, who will probably vote for Kerry if they do vote, is much larger than the undecideds.
Speaking in OU's Baker Center to a packed room, Pope said that until the younger Bush took office, the United States enjoyed "a national environmental compact" respected by both parties. This compact held that everyone -- citizens, government and corporations -- should do their parts to protect the environment; that everyone should enjoy the benefits of this protection; and that the federal government should be the guarantor of the agreement.
"Americans realized that while environmental quality wouldn't be free, the price was very attractive," he said. "We realized that if we did it right, we could sort of have it all."
Under Bush, Pope alleged, "that commitment has been challenged, (but) not frontally, not explicitly, not honestly." He said the current administration has "basically abandoned enforcement of the Clean Air Act," among other retreats from environmental regulation.
Pope said the Bushites' approach to the environment seems mainly a product of ideology. "Their motivation for slashing spending... is not that they're getting lots of campaign contributions (from polluting industries)," he said. "Their attitude toward environmental protection... doesn't mean they don't care about the environment."
On the contrary, Pope said, the president and many of his top officials seem to cherish nature. "The vice president of the United States loves wilderness and wild places as much as any member of the Sierra Club," he acknowledged.
But whereas the Bushites surround themselves with natural beauty and make sure their air and water are unspoiled, he said, they feel these benefits are only for the privileged few.
Thus, while Bush's home county in Texas has arsenic-contaminated drinking water, Pope said, at the president's ranch "he's installed his own water purification system. There's no arsenic in his kids' drinking-water glasses."
Bush and the neo-conservatives, according to Pope, "view clean water and clean air and wild places as commodities... things that, like limousines, should be reserved for successful Americans, Americans who have earned them."
Pope argued that the neo-cons believe the country went wrong under Teddy Roosevelt, who took over the presidency at the turn of the century. Roosevelt, he said, believed firmly that "unless the country is eventually a good place for all of us to live, it can never be a good place for any of us to live."
That maxim was generally respected by every succeeding president up to the current Bush, according to Pope. Thus, from 1972 when the EPA was created, up to 2002, America's water got steadily cleaner. "In 2002, for the first time in 30 years, EPA reported that Americas waterways got dirtier," he said.
Likewise, from 1980 to 2003, steady progress was made on cleaning up toxic dumps. Then "a year ago today, the Superfund went bankrupt," Pope said, and the Bush administration abandoned the notion of making those who had created the dump pay for its cleanup, sending the bill instead to taxpayers in the community where the dump was located.
Since the Grand Canyon National Park was created in 1906, Pope claimed, "every single president of the 20th century... left more of the American landscape protected than what he found." Then Bush was elected, and "began finding ways to strip protection from huge swatches of the continent."
Pope contended that even many conservatives don't like what Bush is doing to the environment, and that he's gotten away with it largely through deception. For example, he noted, a PR adviser has warned Bush officials that the phrase "global warming" disturbs listeners, and therefore the "much more soothing" phrase "climate change" is now the only one used by top administration officials.
"They just won't say its name," he marveled.
Likewise, he said, a law allowing more toxic smokestack releases has been dubbed "Clear Skies," and a program that allows more timber cutting on public lands is called "Healthy Forests" -- names reporters obediently use in referring to the programs.
Bush's campaign Web site calls Clear Skies "an initiative to reduce power-plant emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and mercury by 70 percent and help the states meet tougher new air-quality standards." It maintains that Healthy Forests "will improve the long-term health of our Nation's forests and rangelands," and help prevent dangerous forest fires.
Pope said Kerry can be elected if his supporters make a personal effort to convince like-minded people to get to the polls. While many people intend to vote, he said, they simply don't do it for whatever reason.
He suggested that the only effective way to change this is by lobbying people face to face, and offering them whatever assistance they need -- a car ride, an hour of babysitting -- to get to the polls.
"You cannot motivate someone with an advertisement," he declared. "The only way you can motivate people to vote is to ask them to vote, one on one, and help them... It's really that simple. It's up to us."
Pope said most of the damage done by Bush so far can be reversed if he's ousted, but warned that a second term could be disastrous.
"The good news is, the damage is not permanent," he said. "The bad news is, if he's re-elected, they may be able to make it permanent."
When this story was posted in October 2004, this was on the front page of PCOL:
| Director Gaddi Vasquez: The PCOL Interview PCOL sits down for an extended interview with Peace Corps Director Gaddi Vasquez. Read the entire interview from start to finish and we promise you will learn something about the Peace Corps you didn't know before.
Plus the debate continues over Safety and Security. |
| Schwarzenegger praises PC at Convention Governor Schwarzenegger praised the Peace Corps at the Republican National Convention: "We're the America that sends out Peace Corps volunteers to teach village children." Schwarzenegger has previously acknowledged his debt to his father-in-law, Peace Corps Founding Director Sargent Shriver, for teaching him "the joy of public service" and Arnold is encouraging volunteerism by creating California Service Corps and tapping his wife, Maria Shriver, to lead it. Leave your comments and who can come up with the best Current Events Funny? |
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Story Source: The Athens News
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - India; Election2004; Environment; Advocacy
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