FOUR REASONS
WHY ENVIRONMENTALISTS
FAIL
Dear
HCN,
Jon Margolis’ column on voting trends in the
West (HCN, 11/25/96) should be stapled to the forehead of every
environmental activist in the Northern Rockies. The fact is, he’s
right: People around here do tend to respond more positively to
environmental issues than they do to the environmentalists who talk
about those issues. Why is that? Four guesses on my
part:
Most local environmental
groups aren’t very well organized.
I don’t just
mean things like turning out the vote and staffing phone banks; I’m
talking about basic things like returning phone calls and
recruiting members. Need an example? I’ve called the Idaho
Conservation League thrice, asking to join. Each time I was told a
membership application would be in the mail. I’m still
waiting.
Most local
environmental groups don’t do a good job of growing local
leadership.
Both of Idaho’s senators were
student body presidents at the University of Idaho. Coincidence?
You wouldn’t think so, having seen the way Republicans are
organized on this campus. The Idaho GOP uses campus politics as a
way of identifying and training future leaders; local Democrats
(and environmentalists, for that matter) have yet to develop a
comparable means of spotting future talent on this
campus.
Most local
environmental groups are far too tolerant of the weirdos in their
midst.
I was going to do this sustained rant
about the time I took my kids to hear something that was billed as
a “special environmental program for children,” but I won’t bother.
Suffice it to say that somewhere around the time we were being
urged “to seek one-ness with Brother Elk and Sister Recyclable
Bottle” (and no, I am not making this up), my kids wrote the whole
thing off as both fearsomely strange and terminally
boring.
Most local
environmental groups seems to go out of their way to annoy
potential allies.
Let’s face it – there aren’t
enough environmentalists in Idaho to start winning elections on our
own. If we’re going to acquire some clout, we’re going to need to
build some sort of coalition with other right-thinking people in
this state. So to whom can we reach out? Labor? No way – too many
of “them” are in mining and logging. Besides, where were they when
the civil rights movement needed them? Hunters and fishermen? Nope
– that will tick off the animal rights
people.
Mainline churches? Forget it – everyone
knows the whole Judeo-Christian ethic is to blame for the mess
we’re in. The tourist industry? Who wants to hop in bed with a
bunch of out-of-state interests that don’t pay a living wage,
anyway? Native Americans? Perfect – except they don’t seem to be
nearly as interested in working with us as we are in working with
them. The glow-in-the-dark gang out at INEL? It’s true that some of
the people there were instrumental in the establishment of both
Sawtooth and Hells Canyon national recreation areas. But there’s
that whole issue of nuclear waste, and their attitude towards
technology, and their tie-in with the defense industry … and no,
definitely not them.
Who are we left with?
College students who aren’t being used effectively. Ivy League
alumni like the ones who keep showing up as interns at HCN, and
aging members of the counterculture who keep their brochures for
Earth First! right next to their poster of Ho Chi
Minh.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m sure all these
people are deeply committed to whatever cause is at the top of the
list this week. And I know they throw great potlucks. But as far as
winning elections go? Forget
it.
Greg
Brothers
Moscow,
Idaho
The writer, who teaches
at University of Idaho, is working on a doctorate in the history of
the American West.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Four reasons why environmentalists fail.
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