[Ninja Dodo]

OKay, imagine this scenario...

After four more years of disaster, the Republicans get the boot and the Democrats are left with a world shattered by war. After four years of rebuilding, when the effects of two terms of Bush on the environment are becoming all too evident, the Republicans point their finger and spit:

"See? Back when we were in the White House, everything was still green. Now look at it."

And then it starts.

"Schwarzenegger for trees!"

"Schwarzenegger, The Environment President."

After some minor amendments to the constitution the governator is elected and on we go.

"Yes, the polluters don't like me, becauze I am gonna kick their azzes."


The War on Pollution

"YOUR neighbor could be a polluter!"

Then they dig up another McCarthy somewhere and get organized.

"In other news today, the NRA has announced it will be sponsoring the hunt for polluters--"

...

(the oil industry is left alone, of course)

[EasilyConfused]

Originally Posted by Ninja Dodo

OKay, imagine this scenario...

After four more years of disaster, the Republicans get the boot and the Democrats are left with a world shattered by war. After four years of rebuilding, when the effects of two terms of Bush on the environment are becoming all too evident, the Republicans point their finger and spit:

"See? Back when we were in the White House, everything was still green. Now look at it."

And then it starts.

Intriguing, but implausible, in my view. Every government tries to blame its failures on problems it inherited from the last one (not only in the U.S.), and every opposition party always argues that things were better when it was in office (or would be, if it hasn't been in office in ages.) The idea though that the Republicans could claim that the environment is better now than in some hypothetical Democratic administration in 3 years seems pretty unrealistic to me. I mean, Christie Todd Whitman was a moderate Republican head of the EPA who basically got forced out by the conservative wing, much like Colin Powell eventually got edged out. The Bush environmental record is really abysmal, most notably in the "we still don't know if there is such a thing as global warming" department. To claim after 8 years of it that what you did had no effect when everyone intuitively knows that environmental effects take time to develop would be pretty hard. But as I see it they have pulled off more amazing arguments persuasively, it seems, so who knows.

[Ninja Dodo]

Karl Rove will wave his magic wand and it will all make sense... in an Orwellian kind of way.

Also, really, nobody was expecting this at all...

[Ninja Dodo]

Anyway, that's enough cynicism from me for today.

[Erkki]

Did you know Russia is going to ratify the Kyoto Protocol? I'm kind of surprised.

[Ninja Dodo]

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