November’s Green Wave

Here’s a wonderful article predicting a “green wave” this November, i.e., a huge pulse of voting sentiment mandating environmental responsibility.  Of course, such an event would reverse the current direction, in which the Trump administration is wreaking wholesale devastation of the bipartisan success in the subject over the last 100 years.  

So why won’t the next two years look like the last two?  The author believes one is the “equal and opposite reaction” of Isaac Newton, and the metaphor of the pendulum’s swinging back.

Another is the sheer nonsense of Trump’s rhetoric on the subject.  No one, not even the captains of the coal industry, believe that coal is going to come back, regardless of government policies that subsidize this lethally poisonous section of economy.  The author quips, “The U.S. has more yoga instructors than we do employees in coal,” not to mention the fact that the product of the former group is calmness and tranquility, while that of the latter is malignant tumors.

While 100% of me hopes this happens and about 70% of me believes it will, it is not a certainty.  Keep in mind:

• Young people care about this stuff deeply, but they tend not to vote.

• The corruptive influence of money in politics enables the will of the people to be frustrated continually, regardless of what those people believe and how they vote.  If you think that’s an exaggeration, ask yourself how it’s possible that 91% of Americans want to see universal background checks for prospective gun owners, but there is such powerful resistance to this from the NRA-controlled congress that even a discussion on the subject cannot take place, let alone the passing of legislation.

Let’s hope for the best. In particular, let’s hope that the voters who oppose Trump & Company is much greater than the number of Americans who get the geeky joke on the right.