We generally want to stay away from politics in this blog but sadly politics is so important to the Green and Sustainability movements.
Why does it matter?
We were inspired to see an article recently that despite the overwhelming lobbying money the oil and gas industry spends in the Nation’s Capitol that alternative energy has a good voice as well.
We’d like to see this trend continue since we’ve always felt that if the country ever really got behind Green energy there would be more jobs than could be filled, we could shrink our military greatly, and not have the pressure of always wondering what the price at the pump would be in the next 2 weeks.
So who you choose does count PLEASE GET OUT AND VOTE
We need fewer lawyers in office
We wish that more scientists and engineers would get into politics. No disrespect to our lawyer friends but seems there are way too many lawyers making our laws. Most lawyers we know are not as interested in science and engineering but typically schooled in history and spend more time on well parsing the law and less on how we can change the world for the better or create a new national Green paradigm. We see this in both Obama and Romney’s approach to the election who sadly both went to Harvard Law School and not MIT.
Are Republicans generally less Green?
As far as political parties go, the typical response is that Republicans are less interested in environmental maintenance and more interested in company profits than the Democrats. That may not always be correct. As bad a President as Richard Nixon was at times he did a few amazing things to protect the environment. “Under his watch, the government created the Environmental Protection Agency and adopted numerous landmark pieces of legislation, including the National Environmental Policy Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Federal Environmental Pesticide Control Act, and the Endangered Species Act. He also signed an extension of the Clean Air Act.”(from AllGov.com). Teddy Roosevelt, another strong Republican, really single handedly forced the National Parks into existence.
How’s Obama Done so Far?
President Obama has tried hard at times to help the environment. He has great plans for the Florida Everglades that we being Floridians are hopeful will come to pass but there was a recent flap where he was supporting coal production to protect jobs over the environment just to get votes. President Obama, we feel, had a great opportunity to create a Great Green Plan for the USA to push renewables into the fabric of America where they could never be pulled out again when the economy was struggling and needed investment to bring it around. Perhaps the difficulties of the Great Recession and the political infighting of Congress prevented this from occurring to date. But again President Obama is a lawyer and perhaps is incapable of thinking big enough to design a Great Society type of plan dominated by renewables. He listens to Dr Chu and others but perhaps only spends less than 1% of his time on the very important topics of what should fuel the USA even though he did focus on Green energy in every debate a bit.
Being Party-less would be a Green step
Of course we would be happy if there were no parties and everyone chose based on their own feelings of a given subject. We hope it gets there before we die.
On the flip side more parties might be good for instance we could use a Green party but sometimes too many parties restrict decision making which America cannot even do with just 2 parties.
We feel Mitt Romney is a very intelligent guy. Anyone that can handle Harvard Law and Harvard MBA at the same time while being a dad is much more intelligent than we are. BUT he will not stand up for what he truly believes. He will offer whatever argument he needs to be elected. While Governor of Massachusetts he really had some fairly Green thinking. Now that he’s under the influence of the Tea Party he’s lost his Green nerve sadly. If elected we feel he would kiss Anne on the cheek each morning and then kiss the Tea Party in the afternoon which may not make America more Green. Once again the damaging power of a Party.
Local Elections are really the most important
We feel that really local elections are almost more important than federal elections. Yes the EPA, US Supreme Court Justice appointments, and the like are important and fed policy but as we have seen here in Florida the Republican Governor Scott has eviscerated the water mgmt districts which are essential in policing the use and direction of water in our state. Florida is unique in that much of its water policy is peculiar to Florida only. Although surrounded by water on 3 sides we do not have a large river like the Mississippi that goes thru multiple states or the Colorado river which is so important to water mgmt in the west. So in Florida what local politicians do is very key to our lives. We are sure it is the same in most of the other 49.
Please vote in every decision on your ballot
VOTE FOR ALL THE POSITIONS THAT ARE IN PLAY. You figure if you vote for a local judge and many others skip that vote your vote becomes statistically of much more importance.
In fact here are a few notes from a statistical paper we read on whether or not any vote is important.
In the Federal race, your vote is more important the smaller your state is and the more the electoral votes of your state are to apt to affect the final winner. So if you live in New Hampshire in 2012 you definitely need to vote since you really could have a say. Likely local election voting is very important since the ratio of people voting to total allowable is smaller and your voice really does count.
PLEASE MAKE A CHOICE
Guess we conclude that the choice is yours and please make a choice. We always admired Australia, Brazil, and others with their mandate that the populace votes and their turnout is always in the 90 percentile.
- Australia – Compulsory enrollment and voting for state and national elections for all eligible adults (18 and above). In some states local council elections are compulsory too.[10]
- Brazil[11] – Compulsory for citizens between 18 and 70 years old. Non-compulsory for unregistered citizens aged 16 or 17. A justification form for not voting can easily be filled at election centers and post offices.
As Democratic as America claims to be our turnout in the 60’s is deplorable!
Here are some links that may or may not affect how you vote
Here’s a list of the Greenest and (Un)Greenest federal Legislators courtesy of the Daily Beast
Here’s a report on why Mayor Bloomberg feels global warming should be part of your voting conscience
Here are the 10 Greenest Presidents according to the Daily Beast
We’ll be here on Wednesday the 7th, the day after, to help you with your Green Products needs.
Let’s hope the Presidential election is all over by then??? We Floridians have finally learned how to count our votes so it won’t be our fault if it extends past the 6th.
Very Best
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