March 17, 2005
3/17 - Swift Boat Veterans and Death of Environmentalism: Is there a parallel?
I'm just sayin' ... just a little observation that has occurred to me as I line up our big Earth Day event at USC. We're bringing Mark Dowie, author of the Pulitzer Prize-nominated "Losing Ground" to town for several days, the highlight of which will be a talk at USC on Wednesday April 20 followed by a panel discussion of the recent Death of Environmentalism essays. I have now had 4 people from the large NGO's decline to be on the panel. Two of the large NGO's have published official rebuttals to the Death of Environmentalism and then proclaimed the issue dead and over, wanting to put it behind them.
But ... isn't that exactly what the Kerry Campaign tried to do with the Swift Boat issue last August? They came out with one quick statement, then said, "that's all we're gonna say, we don't want to dignify the critics with our attention." And guess what, the guy lost. And a lot of people pointed out what a losing strategy that was. And now the environmental movement just got clobbered over the head with Alaska drilling. Me thinks the Death of Environmentalism issue is a burning well fire that has not gone out and is not going to just go away on its own.
Hey, I've got a good idea, I'll run for president and just ignore the loudest group of my critics