The Political Affiliation of Conservation

I was talking with a friend the other day who asked me about the political affiliation of conservationists.  After all, Theodore Roosevelt, the father of modern conservationalism, served as president as a Republican, and there is no doubt that even today, one can find many conservative republicans who work very hard to preserve our great gifts of nature.

Having said that, I believe that most of the more active conservationist organizations tend to endorse democrats and more progressive independents.  Here are the Sierra Club’s endorsements: http://www.sierraclub.org/politics/endorsements/.  And more radical groups like GreenPeace are obviously even less likely to endorse political conservatives. 

As it turns out, my friend is one of those rare birds who embraces the best tenets of both sides of the political fence.  I congratulated him on his ability to look at different, opposing ideas openly and thoroughly.  “Not everyone can do that,” I praised, reminding him also what Aristotle taught us:  It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.