Comments JimDiPeso has made

From a real-live green Republican

Well, pin a star on Mark Sanford's chest for stirring the pot and spreading discomfort among the politically correct on both ends of the spectrum.

As the policy director of Republicans for Environmental Protection, (thank you, Randy Cunningham, for the nice plug), I find this discussion invigorating and welcome.

We tell our Republican friends that it's past time for GOP leaders to rediscover the older conservative traditions that demand stewardship as the present generation's obligation to its descendants. One of the reasons that Republicans took a pasting last November was that voters correctly saw many of them for what they were - self-aggrandizing machine politicians. These pols called themselves conservatives and were described as such in the media, but they were obtuse to the true meaning of conservatism. (Read Rod Dreher's book "Crunchy Cons" for a very readable exploration of these ideas.)

Likewise, environmentalists who have put all their political eggs in the donkey's basket would be smart to engage respectfully with conservative constituencies (e.g. evangelicals, sportsmen) and explore alternative approaches to correcting market distortions that reward waste and depletion. A movement that not so long ago was musing about its own death does not have the luxury of indulging in "not invented here" resistance to others' ideas and turning collective noses up at potential allies because they lie outside a political comfort zone.

As Jason said in his first post, the environment should not be treated as a left-right issue. Ending polarization can lead to careful consideration of potentially useful ideas that have withered outside heavily defended ideological barricades. On There's a coalition waiting posted 2 years, 9 months ago 60 Responses