-
Endless War’s Pin-Up Girl
June 13, 2013 | 76 comments
-
The Three-Mile-An-Hour God
June 6, 2013 | 30 comments
-
American Exceptionalism Put to the Test
May 30, 2013 | 71 comments
-
What Are the Risks of Syria Involvement?
May 23, 2013 | 25 comments
-
Pray and Grow Rich
May 16, 2013 | 68 comments
The Nation's Pulse
Get Back in the Game
An interview with the head of the conservative pro-environmental group ConservAmerica.
(Page 2 of 2)
ROB SISSON: Get back into the game! Don’t let liberals monopolize the field of environmental stewardship ideas! Rediscover Edmund Burke’s and Russell Kirk’s ethics of intergenerational equity and the inseparability of freedom and responsibility. Show citizens we care about clean air, clean water, and protecting parks and other open spaces. Develop a set of ideas, based on conservative ethics of limited government, support for markets, and a prudent acceptance of facts and risks. Then take the debate to the liberals and convince the voters.
This will take some courage on behalf of Republican and conservative leaders in Congress. A tiny, but very vocal part of the base will never accept that conservation is conservative. And there are very powerful political donors whose wealth and income are dependent upon the continued ability to download the cost of pollution to the public. By the way, President Reagan called this “the destructive trespass of pollution.” Ending this trespass should be a libertarian value as well.
I’ve told more than one member of Congress that he or she can be this generation’s Theodore Roosevelt, remembered and revered a century from now. All it takes is one person.
We all need clean air and clean water, we all cherish the parks and wide-open spaces that forged America’s history, defined our culture as a freedom-loving, enterprising people, and inspire with their exceptional beauty. Conservatives can show America how we can be good stewards of our great nation.
About the Author
Christopher Orlet writes from St. Louis.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (15) | Leave a comment
More Articles by Christopher Orlet
More Articles From The Nation's Pulse
http://spectator.org/archives/2012/07/05/get-back-in-the-game
Follow us:
ADVERTISEMENT
The Spectacle Blog
Democrat Dan Maffei Blames Budget Cuts for Girl’s Rape, Mother’s Murder
Robert Stacy McCain | 4:12PM
SPONSORED LINKS
FLASHBACK TO: 1995
-
Pope Culture
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
-
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
-
Dames at Sea
-
In the Absence of Guns
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
-
The Metaphysical Martini
-
Counting the Costs of Clintonism
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
-
Chuck McHagel
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
-
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted
-
It’s the Best Time of the Year
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
-
The Bush Crack-Up
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
Clip of the Day
ADVERTISEMENT
THKrupp| 7.5.12 @ 8:37AM
I have always wondered why Conservatives gave up environmentalism and conserving resources to the left. Or at least the appearance of it. Growing up on a farm we were always concerned about our impact on the environment. I attended many soil and water conservation meetings with my father. We built erosion control structures and implemented production practices to control erosion before it was mandated by the government. I remember sunday drives where he would point out the farmers with poor practices. My father was not liberal at all but he has a very deep understanding of what it means to be a good steward of the environment. He also preached that while it wasnt profitable in the short term. Conservation paid off in the long run and for the future generations who would be farming our ground long after we were gone. Sadly this ethic been allowed to be taken over by Democrats.
TrueBlue | 7.5.12 @ 4:17PM
Lack of proper planning is how we ended up with the Dust Bowl. Farmers have sinced learned, and you can definitely tell the ones who don't take it seriously, most of them are getting larger government subsidies so if things go bad the government will just cover their losses.
THKrupp| 7.6.12 @ 2:38PM
I wasnt talking about the dust bowl. The errosion that I saw happening was in Illinois in the early 80s. I see plenty of small farmers with bad practices as well. Its a management issue not a size issue.
Reggie Love| 7.5.12 @ 9:48AM
When he quoted Jeb Bush I stopped reading the article.
cicero| 7.5.12 @ 11:08AM
Government control of the environmental movement through regulations has very little to with environmentalism, and very much to do with control. Before the EPA, and the other acrinimic agencies were established, this country had a body of law that worked very well. It was called the nuisance laws. If anyone was impinging on the rights of others to the use and ejoyment of their resources, ther was a simple remedy. The malefactor was responsible for the damage. Now, no one can use or enjoy his resources, and the damage done by others becomes the burden of all.
Time to grossly scale bacck the size and scope of the Federal government.
THKrupp| 7.5.12 @ 11:25AM
I would not say that it worked well. The state of our environment is much better today than it was before the EPA. We dont have rivers catching on fire anymore and you dont have to worry as much about eating fish caught in the great lakes or major rivers. Before T by 2000 I remember ditches drifting full of black dirt as it blew from unprotected field in the spring. We dont see that kind of stuff anymore. I think that the EPA and other regulators do get caught up more in the collecting money portion rather than actually proctecting the environment anymore, but I dont want to go back to the pre EPA days either.
TrueBlue | 7.5.12 @ 4:20PM
Simple solution for that. Downsize the EPA so that it is a recommendation agency rather than regulation. They pass their recommendations on to Congress to vote into law, or not. This rule by regulation is not a representative government, last I checked we had a Revolution over that kind of rule...
Grant Johnson| 7.5.12 @ 11:27AM
An article extolling the virtues of an organization while telling us virtually nothing of what they stand for. I went to their web site, and they are likewise pretty coy about their actual policy positions (danger!). However, it seems they oppose drilling in ANWR, oppose coal in favor of gas, support the clean air act without stating any opposition to how EPA and the courts are twisting it, support federal spending on "clean energy" subsidies, oppose state control over western federal lands, and advance the idea that climate change is real and bad, though without commiting (anywhere I saw) to what exactly they think we should do about it. What I didn't see in my visit to their site was any pushback again regulatory excess, opposition to bloated government spending, or support for federalism and local and individual control of resources.
In other words it seems to me ConvervAmerica is at best buying into the leftist game of labeling any statist goal the left has as being "for the environment" in order to advance their cause.
Conservatives (and even most Libertarians) support genuine conservation. The real question it seems to me is where do they see the balance? Is the problem with environmental regulation today that there remain further areas in need of regulation, or is the problem excessive power being concentrated in an unaccountable government bureaucracy?
Petronius| 7.5.12 @ 11:28AM
Environmentalism is a leftist vehicle for stripping individuals of their property and wealth. We just had a special election where the options were settling for our sewer bills to be raised either 100% or 250% a month by federal EPA diktat. That's money I cannot spend enjoying my life. And they will not stop until we are like the Europeans who have no disposable income at all. Screw the environment! I want My Freedom back! All of it! My Money should stay in my pocket. And I should be able to do what I want on and with My property so long as no Real harm occurs from my actions.
The one thing not mentioned here is the original goal of environmentalists: outlawing hunting and fishing. That's why they hate the SUV's Bubba hauls his boat and camper with. The green weenies believe that the personified animals in Disney movies are Real. This is central to their Green/Red religion deifying Bambi along with Flopsie and Mopsie and Mighty Mouse. And people wonder why a kangaroo rat living in a farm field puts farmers out of business.
Environmentalists brag that they want to halt all fracking "to keep the oil and gas companies from getting at it so they cannot Sell any of it." In the end, they want Us Dead. There ought to be a bounty on 'em.
John Navratil| 7.5.12 @ 12:31PM
Petronius,
Whatever you do, don't tell a Coonass that they taste good in a gumbo.
Petronius| 7.5.12 @ 4:20PM
Let's not be uncouth. Besides, with this drought we'll need the carcasses for fertilizer.
Tom Kyba| 7.5.12 @ 11:34AM
These ideas of Orlet and Fabrizio would bring hope to us freedom lovers but unfortunately, the majority of Republicans still run like frightened bunny rabbits from the filth stream media. The point being that as soon as someone tries to bring these ideas forward, the ideas will be ridiculed by new millenium men like Chrissie Matthews, the ridicule will pass on to the other outlets, and Boehner and the rest will hide under their beds. You think they care about the republic? No, what they care about is the favorable treatment Roberts has been getting from the MSM. That's the only lesson RINOs' will pay attention to.
And if you think you've heard a lot of references from the media and their buggers-in-arms the Dems about Romneycare, you ain't heard nothin' yet. The differences will matter not a whit, as the media grills Republicans with "hey, you're guy started all this himself in Mass."
I sincerely hope Republicans can get some testosterone injections, because if your system ends up anything like Canada's, what you end up with is people lke Purp going to the emergency room for every headache, cold or to get treatment for stubbing one of his 13 toes.
You folks have no idea what you have, sorry, what John Roberts has gotten you into.
THKrupp| 7.5.12 @ 12:36PM
The problem we have is that we already have people going to the emergency room for every ailement. They dont have insurance or they have employer sponsered insurance. We already had a national health care system but its completely broken in the way we pay for things. The people with insurance have been paying for the people without for a very long time. We need to get rid of employer provided insurance benefits. The costs of our actions need to be an individual responsibility. Until that happens it wont matter what happens, the price of health care will continue to go up.
Ronsch| 7.5.12 @ 12:50PM
Hunters and fisherpersons have pumped millions of dollars in conservation through the Pittman-Robertson Act. You never hear that from the eco-terrorists on the left...They are too busy throwing red paint on people wearing leather or fur, or begging celebrities to pose nude for PETA.
Who do ya'all think buy the most hunting and fishing licenses, as well as ammunition, arrows, traps, etc., that supports Pittman-Robertson? One clue, it sure isn't the gun-hating, fishing, and hunting vegans on the left.
Petronius| 7.5.12 @ 4:15PM
That Pitman Robertson tax money is being spent on anti-gun propaganda programs like Cease Fire, put in place by the same RINO who stuffed the Assault Weapons Ban up our back sides, Jackoff Danforth.