“Creation Care” – God’s Voice on Global Warming

Along with the usual suspects, the coalition supporting Congressional action on global warming includes a broad selection of religious organizations - most interesting are evangelical groups which promote the idea of “Creation Care” which seeks to

… educate, inspire, and mobilize Christians in their effort to care for God’s creation, to be faithful stewards of God’s provision, and to advocate for actions and policies that honor God and protect the environment...in a desire to be faithful to Jesus Christ.

Exactly the kind of Christian values-driven sentiment which can blunt republican opposition to environmental legislation.

A global warming bill passed the House in June and the Senate Environmental Committee recently approved a measure. But don’t expect passage anytime soon.

Here are some of the religious groups building pro-environment constituencies:

• Evangelical Environmental Network
• Evangelical Climate Initiative
• U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
• National Council of Churches
• Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
• Jewish Council for Public Affairs
• Interfaith Power and Light Campaign

Why Aren't We Doing Better? - A List for Democrats

So why can’t a Democratic White House and a Democratic Congress bring about the kind of change we want?

Here’s what we’ve been hearing:

• Obama’s not very progressive
• The Democrats have no guts
• Corporate and financial interests control Congress
• The Republicans tricked us again
• It’s a conservative country
• Americans are dumb
• The Bush deficit
• The media can’t cover complex issues
• It’s too late to liberalize this nation
• It’s Nixon’s and Reagan’s fault
• Religious people are manipulated
• The working class doesn’t vote
• Clinton damaged the presidency
• Iraq and Afghanistan burn up the budget
• Larry Summers

 Here are a few reasons to be hopeful:

• Obama is 48 and getting smarter
• Right wing Republicans will devour their party
• Henry Waxman
• Unemployment has bottomed out
• Health reform will pass
• Young voters lean toward tolerance
• American’s aren’t so dumb
• The EPA is doing its job again
• Democrats want to win
• Progressives know how to organize

Who knows what will be. My advice is to stay positive, enjoy the ride and try to remember what it was like just a few years ago. Need any help...?:

• Dick Cheney
• Donald Rumsfeld
• John Ashcroft
• Gale Norton
• John Roberts
• Tom Delay

The President’s “Statement” Doesn’t Connect

I was discouraged this morning when I caught the President’s remarks from the Rose Garden about the Fort Hood shooting and persistently high unemployment. Obama looked more like a White House staffer reading a statement than a President connecting with Americans over their grief and pain.

Don’t read to us. Talk to us in your own words. Feel it and mean it.

U.S. Interior Department’s Clean Energy Forum

Watch a few minutes of C-SPAN’s coverage of the Interior Department’s Clean Energy Forum held November 2, and you’ll see something both ordinary and extraordinary:

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, his Deputy, Assistant Secretaries, Directors and Commissioners presenting an intelligent and persuasive case for the Obama Administration’s Clean Energy Strategy.

Contrast this group of professionals with the cast of characters at the highest levels of the Interior Department during the Bush era.

Remember Gale Norton, who ran the Department for six years, using her office to turn federal land and resources over to her friends in the mining, timber, oil, gas and coal industries. Norton is now under investigation for conflict of interest related to oil shale leases in Colorado. She was followed as secretary by former Idaho Republican Governor Dick Kempthorne, known for his animosity toward open space in the West.

Disillusioned Democrats, frustrated by stalled legislation in Congress and a cautious White House, should keep in mind that this administration is slowly and steadily shifting the internal practices and policies of federal departments, agencies and commissions.

This takes time. While it’s not exactly a “purge,” populating the federal bureaucracy with appointees who believe in the mission of government is an enormous asset for environmentalists, unions, consumer advocates and progressive organizations from A to Z.

Obama as the Democratic Reagan - An Update

There was talk during last year's campaign about certain similarities between then Senator Obama and Ronald Reagan. The comparison gained even more traction when Obama himself characterized the former Republican president as "transformative." That was seen as a way of appealing to moderate voters who had crossed over to Reagan as well as a swipe at Bill Clinton who, though certainly competent, did not qualify as transformative.

There hasn't been much Obama as Reagan chatter since Barack took office but there are some interesting parallels which could be very encouraging to supporters of the current president.

Look, for example, at Reagan's trajectory:

He wins big in 1981 against incumbent Jimmy Carter, but a weak economy and controversial policies drive down his poll numbers. His popularity, however, recovers along with the economy and by 1984 he sweeps Democrat Walter Mondale in every state except Minnesota (and D.C.).

Also, putting policies aside for the moment, the current and former presidents both show similar leadership attributes:

• Unflappable and Flexible - Stick to your guns and know when to compromise
• Disciplined and Personable - Stay on script (teleprompter) but be yourself (likable and authentic)
• Opportunistic and Optimistic - Use crisis to your advantage and stay true to your principles

Some Reagan-haters attribute the former president's "larger-than-life" status to a clever and manipulative campaign engineered by right wing "thought leaders." This so-called "Reagan Legacy Project" has been persuasively critiqued by Reagan opponents.

But let's not argue that here. Instead, let's hope that historical forces line up for Barack Obama - as they did for Reagan - and that this president can create a lasting record of accomplishment and true transformation.

Don't Hate the Haters

When tea party types are asked to explain their placards comparing President Obama to Adolph Hitler, their answers are often - well - unsophisticated. That makes it pretty easy for us to then see those protesters as morons, or worse.

Moreover, if we were to probe their belief systems, we would likely find some hidden - or not so hidden - racist, anti-semitic and homophobic tendencies. Then we could comfortably conclude that it’s actually the attitudes and behaviors of the Obama- accusers that are, in fact, “Hitlerian”.

But I don’t think we should do this.

We know that demonization sometimes takes place on the left. In particularly bitter union organizing, contract and political battles, for example, worker hostility toward employers, business leaders and political foes can be acute. Stirring up militant emotions is important in building union power. But the level of rage among certain workers in these campaigns can often seem over the top.

I’m not offering a direct equivalence between worker anger in a labor dispute and fanatic right wing hysteria. But organizers across ideologies know that creating an “us versus them” dynamic is usually essential in motivating people for action.

The common denominator is, I think, a sense of helplessness among many struggling Americans. With the reach of the American Labor Movement drastically reduced over the years, wage-earners are isolated and susceptible to extremist views.

Am I suggesting that under different circumstances, some or many of the Obama-haters would be on our side, fighting for good wages and a more equitable economy? I suppose I am.

More Unjustified Optimism from Observe Obama

Many of us became poll-obsessed during the ’08 General Election, daily tracking the overall and state-by-state numbers. Our confidence grew during the final weeks as the numbers held. Remember the exhilaration when the Obama family walked onto the stage in Chicago’s Grant Park?

That was so last year.

Now we have the presidential approval numbers. Not so much fun, right?

Just stay above 50 percent for now and we’ll be O.K. We have a year until the Congressional midterm elections and three whole years before the next presidential.

A lot can and will happen during that time. There will be dramatic and unexpected turns in health care, Afghanistan, the economy and the unknown.

Not everything will go our way. But there are different ways we can greet the history of the Obama era as it unfolds before us. We can be glum, outraged and desperately disappointed.

Our entire sense of well-being can depend on whether we get a public option!

Or we can welcome the changes that come our way: what it means to have the EPA run by environmentalists rather than industry hacks, how liberating it is not to be fighting to keep Scalia-clones off the bench; having a real conversation about a national high-speed rail system.

I know. You think I’m grasping for straws because Obama couldn’t deliver the transformational change we craved.

Fair enough.

But this Obama thing is just getting started.

What made you think that the Republican’s would give up fear-mongering, name-calling and even a contemporary version of red-baiting? This stuff has worked for 80 years.

I urge my friends and colleagues to hang in there. Don’t get depressed. This is America. It’s a complicated place with very conservative impulses.

If progressive ideas are going to work here, progressive people must look like we’re having a good time, not sitting around staring at our feet.