Politics as usual

Dear Friends,

An article in The New York Times (here) reported on the speeches given by the Democratic candidates for President to the Democratic National Committee summer meeting. Governor O'Malley and Senator Sanders both attacked the party for its politics as usual approach, including limiting the number of debates. As Senator Sanders said, the Republicans did not win big in 2014, the Democrats lost because of our failure to vote.  He is right.

The Democratic Party establishment has and continues to destroy the party. The party leadership has continued to support a Republican light agenda to try to capture some independent voters. That policy has been a failure.  Only because of Senators Warren and Sanders has Secretary Clinton begun to sound like a Democrat.  Howard Dean championed expanding the number of people who vote, and President Obama proved that Governor Dean's theory was right. Nevertheless the Democratic establishment refuses to stand up for true progressive policies. The result is complete voter apathy. Bernie Sanders continues to draw huge and enthusiastic crowds and to rise in the polls because he is a genuine and out spoken liberal whose message resonates with real people who will go out and vote if he is the candidate and will stay home if, politics as usual, Hillary Clinton is the nominee.

A recent poll in Iowa (here) shows Bernie Sanders within 7 percentage point of Hillary Clinton (37% v. 30%), a big gain for Sanders and a big loss for Clinton. It also shows that support for Clinton is now well below 50%. That poll also shows that Sanders is doing just as Obama did in Iowa. He is attracting first time caucus goers at a much higher rate than Hillary Clinton is.  While it appears that many establishment Democrats continue to fall in line to support Secretary Clinton, the voters who will vote if they are excited by a candidate are showing up for Senator Sanders. Democrats can not retake Congress without these voters even if we might be able to defeat the Republican presidential candidate.

Bernie Sanders is articulating the theory that he can beat any Republican presidential candidate and that in doing so the voters who come out to vote for him will help Democrats retake Congress. I am not sure that we can retake the House with all the Republican gerrymandering and voter suppression, but we can only be truly competitive by standing up for our liberal heritage which will generate new voters who enthusiastically go to the polls. Politics as usual will ruin the Democratic Party.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal

Who will fight global warming?

Dear Friends,

For reasons that are incomprehensible to me, President Obama has given Shell approval to drill in the Arctic.  After the approval was announced, Hillary Clinton broke her silence on the issue and said that permitting Shell to drill in the Arctic was not worth the risk.  Bernie Sanders has long opposed drilling in the Arctic.

Hillary Clinton is right that permitting Shell to drill in the Arctic is not worth the risk.  However, the more important reason for not permitting Shell to drill in the Arctic is that we need to move away from fossil fuels now not gradually over decades as fossil fuel reserves are drawn down.  We must leave most of the already know reserves in the ground.  We do not need to find new ones.  We need to focus on alternative renewable green energy.

An editorial in The Guardian (here) ends with this paragraph which I think is perfect.

This is depressing evidence of a reluctance to tackle the biggest challenge of keeping the increase in global temperatures below two degrees. Since March, the Guardian has been campaigning to persuade investors that ultimately the majority of known fossil fuel reserves will have to be left in the ground. That requires a revolution not just in thinking now, but in the way we understand economic development. It can no longer be a question of exploitation of resources. Now sustainable economies must be built on a deliberate exercise in forgoing them. Every time a new area of fossil fuel exploitation is opened up, even if it is shale gas which appears less polluting than coal or oil, the risk is that the transition drifts a little further downstream. The Obama decision on Arctic drilling on the face of it is wrong because it jeopardises a unique environment. But it is even worse than that. It is another barrier to a change on which a sustainable future depends.

I think it is important to assess our Presidential candidates on whether or not they understand what the Guardian editorial is saying.  Since all of the Republican candidates are still focused on drill baby drill, I can exclude them from this analysis.  I will focus on Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.

It is clear that Bernie Sanders understands that we need to stop drilling and focus on alternative fuels. He was one of 18 Senators that sent President Obama a letter urging him to deny Shell the right to drill.  The following is a quote from that letter:

Opening development on a new fossil fuel reservoir in the Arctic not only puts the natural resources, ecosystems and the dependent communities at risk, it also contradicts the President’s Climate Action Plan to limit greenhouse gas emissions and reduce climate change. It is an unacceptable and irresponsible decision,

In addition to the letter, Bernie Sanders issued a statement saying:

At a time when our planet is warming due to climate change, the last thing our environment needs is more drilling. What we need is for Congress and the White House to move toward clean energy such as solar, wind and biomass.

While Hillary Clinton has said drilling in the Arctic is not worth the risk and that she would dramatically reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, she has never made it clear that she understands that we need to stop drilling.  She has good plans for incentivizing alternative fuels, but they are vague at this time.  And then there is her refusal to take a position on the Keystone XL Pipeline.  An article in The New York Times (here) contains this quote which is a great summary of where Hillary Clinton is at this point in time.

"Hillary Clinton is just half the way there,” said Bill McKibben, head of the group 350.org, which has led the grass-roots movement calling for Mr. Obama to reject the Keystone pipeline. “This is a credible commitment to renewable energy, and a recognition that the economics of electricity are changing fast. Now, we need Clinton to show she understands the other half of the climate change equation — and prove she has the courage to stand up against fossil fuel projects like offshore and Arctic drilling, coal leasing in the Powder River basin, and the Keystone XL pipeline.”

Climate change is an existential issue for the earth and all of its inhabitants.  We need leaders who are bold and passionate about stopping global warming.  We need to end our reliance on fossil fuels now and that means no more approvals for fossil fuel projects.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal

President Jimmy Carter

Dear Friends,

President Jimmy Carter has been diagnosed with cancer.  Please keep him in your thoughts, and if you pray, pray for him.  He was a great President as I discussed in a prior post (here).

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal