Vote (Mostly) for Democrats

I thought I would do no more partisan political blogs, but Superstorm/Hurricane/Windstorm/Blizzard Sandy has pushed me over the top as if I were hit by a surge of water.

I doubt any climate scientist would say Sandy is “proof” of global climate change. But I am sure most would say that this ongoing tragedy is another sign of what most scientists have warned about: that the warming of the planet will result in more extremes of weather. Katrina...the continuing drought in our midwest...Sandy; they are all pieces of predicted patterns resulting from climate change.

People advise that we “not make politics from this disaster.” But why not? This is a political issue, for our political systems are the only power we-the-people have to stand up to short-term profit motives that compromise the long-term viability of our home planet. Healthy and responsive political power is the sole means by which we might assure our survival as a species, living at anything more than subsistence level.

The Republican Party is in the thrall of “know-nothing” self-anointed constitutional literalists. They only see things through ideologically-colored glasses, facts be damned. These are the very people who have brought us the idea of “legitimate rape,” of pregnancies that result from rape being “the will of God,” of childbirth never threatening the life of the mother. These are the people who call evolution, embryology and the Big Bang theory “lies from the pit of hell.” These are the people who believe Obama is waging a “War on Coal” (actually I think waging such a battle is a pretty good idea) and that “Obamacare” is a government "take-over" of the health-care non-system. These are people revising our economic history since Ronald Reagan to try to convince us that allowing the very rich to become very much richer somehow benefits the rest of us. (Check out “Why Obama Now” on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9G8XREyG0Q for a very partisan, but I believe much more accurate, telling of the story.)

And climate change? It’s as if they have never heard of it. I look forward to a video of Mitt Romney repeating to the people of coastal New Jersey what he said a few weeks ago: "I'm not in this race to slow the rise of the oceans or to heal the planet. I'm in this race to help the American people." Canned goods don’t cut it, Mr. Wanna-be President. We must lengthen our perspective on the challenges we face, and then face them. Doing that is the kind of “help” we need from our nation’s leaders, from our politics. Now. For our future.

Let me be honest: many Democrats are not a whole lot better. Too many of them/us wear blinders (not binders!) regarding our fiscal crisis. Too few of them/us make dealing with climate change a priority. If Obama is elected to a second term, he must pound the presidential bully pulpit and exercise strong political leadership regarding climate change. But if Romney is elected I am sure that won’t happen at all. Not a peep will come out of his mouth...well, unless he changes his views...again.

Not all Republicans are beholden to this historical aberration of cultivated ignorance, and a few Democrats are. And while a poll I saw today says more people believe Romney can “reach across the aisle” than can Obama, there’s little likelihood even Romney’s reach will extend as far as his party’s fundamentalist wing. Even John Boehner had trouble reaching that far, and he’s almost one of them. That’s why it is important to defeat as many far-right-wing Republicans as possible in congressional races, and to elect Barack Obama as President.

I have been tempted to vote for “Green Party” candidates to express my environmental concerns. But I cannot throw my vote away when the choice is so plain between electing leaders who despise science and other learning and those who pay at least some attention to facts and are thus more likely to make informed decisions for our nation’s present and future.

Given the choice between what the Republican Party offers and what the Democratic Party offers I urge you to vote (mostly) for Democrats...first for Barack Obama, and then, if you live in Ohio, for Sherrod Brown. They are by far the more informed choices.