Can Green Turn Red to Blue?

By: Lowell
Published On: 9/16/2007 6:22:59 AM

I love this story, about how "[t]he Bush administration's aggressive drive to promote oil and gas drilling on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains has sparked growing anger," and how that has led to a "backlash from ranchers and sportsmen" which is "is threatening GOP primacy in at least one corner of what has been a solidly Republican West."

Can green turn red to blue politically?  It looks like that might very well be happening in Colorado, as "People who were conservative, as they begin to be impacted by drilling, they're moving into an environmental posture."  Isn't this exactly what Steve Jarding and Mudcat Saunders argued in their book, "Foxes in the Henhouse: How the Republicans Stole the South and the Heartland, and What Democrats Must Do to Run 'em Out?"  See in particular Chapter 4 ("Lie 4: Republicans are the Party for Hunters, Anglers, and Outdoor Enthusiasts"):

One way to start getting these people [outdoor enthusiasts, hunters, anglers, wildlife observers] back in the [Democratic] fold is to change the focus of the sportsmen debate.  The turf has to shift from the hollow and unsubstantiated claims that the greatest threat to sports people is that someone wants to take their guns to the real pollution and conservation problems we have outlined.

In sum, Jarding and Saunders add, "Republicans have sold out the environment to corporate polluters and campaign contributors...have treated family farmers as disposable commodities in favor of faceless corporations who ravage the land and turn waterways into open sewage lagoons, have jumped in bed with big oil..."  Given all that, Jarding and Saunders asy, "If Democrats continue to lose to this phony, sanctimonious, hypocritical, moneygrubbing band of blowhard brothers, they deserve to lose."

Perhaps one way for Democrats to turn that around is by using "green" to help turn "red" to "blue." If it can happen in Colorado, it can happen here too.

Comments



"Sportsmen for ___ ?" (hereinva - 9/16/2007 8:54:31 AM)
Reading LTE's and OP-ed pieces in "Field & Stream" and Izaak Walton League's magazine "Outdoor America" offers a barometer of the conflict between the preservation and protection of natural resources and "laissez-faire" policies. In order to fish and hunt (and be fruitful) its necessary to have clean fresh water and open undisturbed natural habitat.

Seems that campaigns that have a "Sportsmen for ______" (insert candidates name) the emphasis is more on  gun ownership issues rather than protection/conservation of natural resources.



Red + Green = Blue (LT - 9/16/2007 9:49:01 AM)
Jarding and Saunders weren't the first to call attention to this development. I actually found out about it through David Sirota's article on Brian Schweitzer in Washington Monthly and his article "The Democrats' Da Vinci Code" in The American Prospect". I believe both articles are online and are well worth a look. Democrats in other reddish-but-competitive corners should adopt this approach as well. In fact, Jim Webb used a very similar apporach and won (he's not been perfect on the issue but I'd gladly have him and (Jon) Tester over Maccaca and ol' C. Montana Burns).

BTW, J&S' description of the GOP as a "phony, sanctimonious, hypocritical, moneygrubbing band of blowhard brothers" is PRICELESS (though a bit of a mouthful)!!