I typically try to avoid political commentary from my blog, as I prefer it to be more of a how-to. But I couldn’t resist after seeing Senator Inhofe’s (R-Oklahoma) pronouncement last Thursday about environmental organizations. He accuses all environmental groups, including the large and respected organizations Sierra Club, Greenpeace and League of Conservation Voters of being part of a Democratic conspiracy to keep Republicans out of elected office. He argues that their endorsements and financial support of Democratic politicians and their persecution of Republican ones is proof of this accusation.
Senator Inhofe seems to forget the basic fundamentals of non-profit organizations. They support the politicians that believe in their cause. Just as the NRA mostly supports Republicans, the environmental groups will largely favor Democrats because these are the people who attempt to further environmental goals. I realize in the current political landscape with more and more people becoming concerned about climate change, many Republicans are changing their tune (but beware of greenwashing). However, the Republicans have never been noted for their eco-friendly policies and thus there is no reason that environmental organizations should support most of them. Environmental organizations will support those that consistently vote with the environment; for bills that improve it and against bills that contribute further to their degradation.
The other problem I have with Inhofe’s argument is the suggestion that the connections between different environmental organizations further implicates them in a Democratic conspiracy. Why wouldn’t environmental organizations be allied and share resources? This is a completely obvious way of running one’s organization. Inhofe exposes these things as though this is a ludicrous way of behaving.
Inhofe focuses on a collection of groups that want to improve society and the Earth’s health just because they listed him as one of their “Dirty Dozen”. There’s a more obvious conspiracy in politics today that doesn’t aim to improve anything for the general public, just the pocketbooks of America’s most powerful people and companies. I’ll leave you to decide which conspiracy you want to be a part of.
