Rural Green Caucus

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November 19, 2006

Recent Elections Changes Rural Power in DC

The recent election changed more than the political balance between Democrats and Recpulbicans. One of the interesting switches comes from the fact that the shift from Republican control to Democratic control of congress meant that there were corresponding changes in the political power of supporting organizations. We have all heard that Sierra Club or the Defenders of Wildlife take credit for the greening of the 110th Congress. According to the Sierra Club's Carl Pope, they made a big difference.

Overall the Sierra Club invested in 32 major projects -- each one an effort to identify and turn out environmental voters in a metropolitan area. From that investment, we garnered about 20 new environmental votes in the House of Representatives, five new green votes in the Senate, and four new green Governors. That's a very high ROI. There have been three major turning-point election since I became an environmentalist -- turning points in the favor of the future. They were the mid-terms of 1974, the Clinton election of 1992, and now this one. The two previous ones were, statistically, probably larger. But they were largely the result of external factors -- environmentalists in a certain sense benefited from them, but did not earn them.

This was one was different. We worked this, for years. We stretched, we grew, we dared, we slogged. This one was a tribute to our commitment to Lincoln's and Jefferson's faith in democracy.

Also in the mix was the fact that two newly elected Senators, Tester (MO) and Webb (VA) are members of the National Farmers Union as is Representative Jim Walz (MN) who ousted a Republican.

Accoring to the Salme, OR based Capital Press ("The West's AG Website) this has even more meaning for farmers.

The NFU, which has 250,000 members concentrated in the Plains and Rocky Mountain states, and the American Farm Bureau Federation, which claims about 5.5 million members through its insurance sales, are the nation's pre-eminent general farm organizations. Both the NFU and Farm Bureau say they are nonpartisan, but the NFU traditionally has ties to the Democrats and Farm Bureau to the Republicans.

If that re-allignment is true, then it would be worth paying attention to what the NFU is going to be asking their Democratic friends to accomplish in 2007.

I note that they have their own Carbon Credits Program and are talking about risk managemen for weather related disasters. These are surely issues that concern rural American and should be central to Green polich.

Posted by Wes at 04:41 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 14, 2006

Plenty of jobs, no money

I found another blog today that dealt with rural issues. Called the Blog for Rural America, and run by the Center for Rural Affairs, it featured a recent post that gave some of the credit for the recent Democratic victory to rural votes, especially in Missouri. (read more).

At a time when many Greens would abandon rural areas as "red state country" and "a waste of resources to organize" McCaskill's victory in Missour seems to indicate that Rural America can at least be the difference maker in major elections. The question for us as Greens is whether or not it can be the engine that sparks our growth.

Rural America lives close to the land. If there is any consituency for Green Environmental Policy, it should be here. We have too frequently been labeled as city slicker, tree huggers who are trying to tell rural America how to live. I know that is how the Republicans would like to picture us. Greens are a threat to the Corporate Money Tree for Republicans.

What they do not understand is that Greens policies for sustainable development and decentralization would make be a sensible alternative to big spending Democratic programs.

The real entry for Greens in many rural areas would seem to be the fact that there are many jobs, all paying poverty level wages. It is time that Greens learned the lesson of 1992, when Clinton reminded the country that "It's the economy." Green economic policy will drive Green Party Growth in Rural America at the expense of the Republicans, and it can begin on Rove's watch.

Posted by Wes at 04:41 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack