Dear Crazy “Conservatives”, Hands off our Land
Cultish Lawmakers Trying to Tame the Land Teddy Left Wild
“We have fallen heirs to the most glorious heritage a people ever received, and each one must do his part if we wish to show that the nation is worthy of its good fortune.” — Theodore Roosevelt
In an age of borderline paranoia for conservative Republicans, they may be taking it 84 million acres too far. A group of 20 congressmen have proposed to transfer all federally owned land, including national parks and forests (accounting for 12% of total US land) to the control of the states. This ‘task force’ is headed by Cliven Bundy, who issued the following statement:
“Congress shall immediately pass universal legislation providing a timely and orderly mechanism requiring the federal government to convey certain federally controlled public lands to the states.We call upon all national and state leaders and representatives to exert their utmost power and influence to urge the transfer of those lands identified.”
Now there is rightful government, and there is wasteful government. As a Republican myself I will be the first to say, a very large portion of it has become wasteful and oppressive. But folks, that’s not the case here. If the GOP ever wants to become popular with younger, educated voters again, it has to pull this garbage out of its agenda.
Experts have predicted that the large majority of this transferred land would be auctioned off for private sale by the states, as they do not have the funds or programs to support the parks and forests. We aren’t talking about Uncle Joe going down to the courthouse to get him some hunting land here.
Where the buffalo once roamed will be stomped on by CEO’s and the rest of corporate America eager to build up their commercial resorts and new communities.
The natural human instinct is to survive, and once he has sufficed his living, he will go to each and every length to ensure he then thrives.
America is well past the age of survival on the frontier. We’ve gotten greedy. I’m a free market, pure-capitalist but I recognize when the American Dream surpasses its bounds. When colonists declared independence from Britain and again when Jefferson purchased the west from France, we took up a responsibility not only to develop for future generations, but to sustain.
Even before people were fully aware that our energy sources are nonrenewable, Teddy Roosevelt penned:
We have become great because of the lavish use of our resources. But the time has come to inquire seriously what will happen when our forests are gone, when the coal, the iron, the oil, and the gas are exhausted, when the soils have still further impoverished and washed into the streams, polluting the rivers, denuding the fields and obstructing navigation.
Roosevelt, a Republican himself, recognized firsthand the beauty of America as an avid sportsman on the western frontier. So during his presidency of 1901–1909, he made it an utmost priority to protect and preserve large quantities of land by the federal government.
Yep. Long before any scientific facts had arisen to support climate change or exhaustible resources, our 26th president took it upon himself to secure Divine creation for generations, based merely on the sheer beauty of it all.
Apparently we need more of that today. The GOP is still operating on a string of loosely bound theories that global warming is a government conspiracy and that we have the coal/natural gas to last us for millennium. Simply put, it’s a bunch of old white dudes who didn’t grow up with environmental protection in their high school curriculum that are influencing our Republican politicians.
I can’t emphasize enough how strongly I dislike Barack Obama but at least he (and apparently only the Democrats) understands the threat we’re up against. In the video below, he highlights on what climate change is doing to America as it has become so evident in Alaska.
Currently, 61% of Alaska is federally owned. What is to become of this beautiful state if handed over to oil and logging corporations? Not to mention one of my own dreams is to take a road trip to Alaska’s national parks!
While the Trump campaign hasn’t endorsed the selling off of national parks, they do support mining and drilling in these areas as a means to pay off national debt saying, “The United States government owns more real estate than anybody else, more land than anybody else, more energy than anybody else. We can get rid of government buildings we’re not using, we can extract the energy from government lands, we can do all kinds of things to extract value from the assets that we hold.”
That doesn’t sound like “energy independence”, Mr. Trump.
If Donald J. Trump really wants to win this election, he is going to have to make a dramatic shift to the center environmentally before November. Over 80% of Americans favor the protection of land by government, and 2015 was the most popular year for our national parks ever, with over 292 million visitors.
Trump has been a city slicker most of his life, building over every bit of land he can get his hands on, but it is vital his environment views do not represent the future of the Republican party. Polls now suggest that millennials are highly more likely to favor the reduction of carbon emissions and a clean energy future for America, regardless of partisanship. Even within the Republican Party alone, 54% recognize climate change exists.
It’s time for the GOP to wake up. Follow the Democrats’ example on this one and work to make America the most environmentally friendly country on the planet. We all know Trump loves to win. He’s made it quite clear. So let’s win in the green category too.
Trust Teddy on this one.
#MakeAmericaGreenAgain
