There’s a tendency of conservatives to carelessly toss about the
“S” word. Like John McCain, who opposed the Bush tax cuts
while spouting left-wing rhetoric, then accusing Barack Obama of
being a socialist because the latter proposed to increase taxes
on the rich. It was bad liberal
redistributionist policy, but McCain—for every bail-out as
well as cap-and-trade—was in no position to call his opponent a
socialist for advocating the same dumb liberal redistributionist
policies.
However, as the Washington Examiner pointed out last
week (and
the Washington Times mentioned today), Carol Browner
really is a socialist. Or at least, she belonged to the
Commission for a Sustainable World Society, which is part of the
Socialist International. Granted, these are pretty wimpy
socialists, rather than serious guys with guns intent on seizing
everyone’s property. But still.
Reports the Examiner:
Conservatives are often accused of scaremongering when they
claim left-wing environmentalists are actually socialists
hiding behind green disguises. But with Carol Browner, incoming
President Barack Obama’s freshly appointed Assistant to the
President for Energy and Climate Change - the so-called White
House “Climate Czar” - there is no question about the
socialism. Browner is a member of the Commission for a
Sustainable World Society (CSWS), which is a formal organ of
the Socialist International. Oddly enough, the group’s web site
was recently scrubbed to remove Browner’s picture and
biography, but her name is still listed next to the
photo-biographies of her 14 colleagues on the commission. The
Socialist International is no group of woolly-headed idealists.
It is an influential assembly of officials from across the
international community whose official Statement of Principles
describes an agenda of gaining and exercising government power
based on socialist concepts.
Browner’s CSWS is similarly open about the economic costs it is
willing to impose, across national borders to achieve its
environmental utopia. On Sept. 5-6, 2008, the commission noted
that the costs of its proposals would “rang[e] in the hundreds
of billions of dollars over the next two decades,” and it
called for a “redesign of the international rules on
intellectual property.” That is international bureaucratese for
compelling an inventor to surrender property rights in order to
“share” technologies with less-developed countries.
At the Congress of the Socialist International held last June
30-July2, the CSWS officially resolved that “market solutions
alone are insufficient and will not provide the financial
support and resources necessary to achieve the required
combination of deep emission reduction, adaptation to already
changing climate conditions, energy security and equitable and
environmentally sound economic development.” Again, that’s
bureaucratese. It means that international taxes should be
imposed to provide the “resources necessary” to impose what the
CSWS repeatedly refers to as a ‘regime” against “global
warming.” By appointing Browner to a White House post,
Obama has at the least implicitly endorsed an utterly radical
socialist agenda for his administration’s environmental policy.
The incoming chief executive thus strengthens critics who
contend environmental policies aren’t really about protecting
endangered species or preserving virgin lands, but rather
expanding government power and limiting individual freedom.
The best part is that Browner obviously is embarrassed by the
connection, since someone has engaged in a bit of Stalinist
air-brushing of history by eliminating her picture and bio from
the socialist website.
Alas, she’s headed to the White House—ironically, to be “Czar”
of the Climate. (Didn’t socialists revolt against the last
real Czar?). That means there will be no Senate
confirmation process, with an opportunity ask appropriate
questions.
