Note: This photo has been going around the web, with seeing it multiple times & received into emails. When/if I learn origin, I will provide appropriate credit both to sign maker & to photographer.
Note: The photo above and that from a post just a week ago provide a stark, stark statement as to the shift from (limited) optimism about humanity’s forward to a justified concern about America’s potential lose of its democracy and actual promotion of white power extremists into the White House.
2 responses so far ↓
1 John Egan // Nov 22, 2016 at 9:40 am
Adam, I’m sure you are aware of the brouhaha over the National Policy Institute’s banquet at Maggiano’s this past weekend. While you were talking about doubling the price of gasoline and “Coal-Free by ’23” [note: where?] people in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan were driving twice as far to make half as much.
I have consistently argued that in order to preserve and expand environmental action, progressives had to ensure core economic opportunities for all – especially those most at risk.
I have also stated that a growing right-wing movement was the greatest immediate threat and that to take actions which alienated a small but critical part of the Democratic coalition would hand the political reins over to the right.
Well, you have just done that.
You have called me many things over the years – but you have never said that I was correct.
2 A Siegel // Dec 23, 2016 at 8:47 am
Hillary Clinton lost the White House and the Democratic Party lost the Senate/etc for many reasons.
Your unending blaming of environmental policies and concepts is not just tiring but simply appears to be at odds with what was happening.
Let us take ‘white working class’ as a surrogate for who you are saying environmentalism drives away from the party in masses.
See this NYTimes article on how Clinton ‘lost’ the Obama coalition.
In particular, look at the table “Appealing to White Working-Class Democrats: Donald J. Trump’s economic views hold some appeal for blue-collar white Democrats”. There are 12 items there re “Percentage of white Democrats without a college degree who say …:
Top 1, “Gun rights are more important than control” is 45% and items 2 and 3 are about free trade, etc … “Stricter environmental laws cost too many jobs” is #10 on the list with 21% and far more, in fact, support stronger environmental policies.
From that article,
The driving issue in ‘losing the Obama coalition’ was far, far from environmentalism writ large and certainly not the type of policy concepts that I have promoted/discussed.
Now, let’s be clear, “coal country” has gone deep, deep red. Just as there is no path toward winning over firm single issue anti-choice voters without flipping on a fundamental core issue, there is no chance to win single issue pro-fossil fuel voters without reversing course and embracing policies to destroy the future. Now, could there be ways to put a little more purple into ‘coal country’ with Van Jones like embraces of coal miners & communities as heroes who have sacrificed/suffered to help the nation achieve greatness? Yes, I think so — and have stated so in the past on more than one occasion. But that is a path toward helping them create a viable, healthier (individuals and communities, prosperous path forward rather than seeking to double down on energy policies that we know wreck our future prospects.