Dear HCN,
As the nation prepares
for the upcoming presidential election, it is so sad to read about
the formation of the group “Environmentalists Against Gore” (HCN,
8/28/00: The Latest Bounce). If this group succeeds in what must be
its goal, we will get George W. Bush as our next president. If this
is what these environmentalists want, why not be honest and name
the group, “Environmentalists for George W.
Bush”?
This has all happened before. In the
1960s, the war in Vietnam polarized the Democrats, whose Chicago
convention was split between Hubert Humphrey and Eugene McCarthy as
the party’s nominee for president. Humphrey was the sitting vice
president and was tainted as “pro-war” because of his service with
President Lyndon Johnson. Sen. Eugene McCarthy was strongly opposed
to the war and hence was “pure.” Humphrey got the nomination, and
if I recall correctly, this caused many of the McCarthy supporters
to oppose Humphrey. They vowed to teach the Democratic Party a
lesson. The American people then rejected Humphrey and elected
Richard Nixon. The Democratic Party learned its lesson; you don’t
oppose those who are “correct” and “pure.” So, four years later,
the Democrats nominated George McGovern, whose anti-war credentials
were pure and unblemished. But the American people rejected
McGovern and gave Richard Nixon another term as
president.
The historian George Santayana wrote:
“Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat
it.”
Writing in Newsweek
Magazine (Aug. 28, 2000, Pg. 64), Anna Quindlen observes
that Ralph Nader, the third-party candidate, “has attacked Gore as
not sufficiently pure on environmental issues, but, as the vice
president’s Sierra Club endorsement attests, chances for
conservationist policy are likely to be greater, if not great
enough, in a Gore administration (as compared to a George W. Bush
administration).” Quindlen notes that the people, such as the
environmentalists opposing Gore, are trying to make a statement.
But, she notes, “Statements help a small group of people to feel
pure and pious and superior for a day or two, (but) there is still
too much need in America to waste a vote on a feeling so fleeting
and meaningless.”
Albert A.
Bartlett
Boulder, Colorado
The writer is Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Colorado.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Environmentalists for Bush.
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