The “green
elephants” with the grassroots group Republicans for Environmental
Protection (REP) will not be endorsing a candidate for president
this year. The group’s Web site calls the move “a simple and
honest acknowledgment that over the last four years, the Bush
administration has compiled a deliberately anti-environmental,
anti-conservation record that will result in lasting damage to
public health and to America’s natural heritage.”
As evidence, REP points to the rollback of Clinton-era proposals
such as the Yellowstone snowmobile ban and the protection of
national forest roadless areas. REP has also criticized
Bush’s “Healthy Forests Initiative,” which promised to reduce
wildfires by thinning dense thickets and brush without the usual
agency oversight and environmental regulations.
The group
works within the GOP to support green candidates, and hopes to
build on the legacies of conservative conservationists such as
Teddy Roosevelt and Barry Goldwater (HCN, 2/3/03: But you
don’t sound like a Republican). It endorsed Sen. John McCain
in the 2000 primaries, and halfway through Bush’s
presidential term, gave the president a “report card” on his work
in nine categories. His grades included 6 D’s, 2 Fs and a
single B-.
“The president’s grades have declined,”
says REP’s communication director, Jim DiPeso. “There’s
just no leadership from D.C., and aggressive national leadership
must come from the Oval Office.”
High-profile Republicans
have been defecting from the Bush camp all year: Russell Train,
head of the Environmental Protection Agency under Presidents Nixon
and Ford, announced his support for Bush’s opponent,
Democratic Sen. John Kerry, this summer. Former Minnesota Supreme
Court Justice Edward Stringer, who served as chief counsel to
George H.W. Bush’s Education Department and as chief of staff
for Minnesota’s Republican Gov. Arne Carlson, also supports
Kerry, citing the environment as one reason.
Come
November, a fair number of conservative hunters and outdoor
enthusiasts in swing states such as Pennsylvania, New Mexico and
Oregon may also be leaving Bush behind, says DiPeso. If they do
that, he says, they’ll be “plugging their noses and voting
for Kerry.”
The author writes from Leavenworth, Washington.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline ‘Green elephants’ abandon Bush.
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