Ever hear of R.E.P.?

[stanwyck]

Well, believe it or not, it stands for Republicans for Environmental Protection. Only, their type of protection is more like the mob type. I was behind a car today with a REP bumper sticker as well as an anti-abortion sticker so I thought I'd check it out.

What do you think? Can people really be pro-environment and still vote Republican? Or does being green and environmentally conscious cancel our a person's right to call himself/herself pro-environment?


http://rep.org/

My view is, you vote Republican, you lose the right to say you're an environmentalist.

[NoPasaran]

1. Republicans love the environment

It's those pesky trees they can't stand!

Actually, didn't Ronzo Raygun claim to be an environmentalist?

[Hell Hath No Fury]

2. I don't know about that group....

but I know personally one of the very top members of REP America, a GOP enviro group.

I have been very impressed with their work -- they have been HIGHLY critical of Bush and what he has been doing. Most of their positions are in direct line with mainstream environmentalists.

It's a group I have a lot of respect for.

[stanwyck]

4. what I don't understand

is how important can this issue be if these people continue to vote for the people who are ruining the environment? What issues outweigh the environment, in their view? Tax cuts? Prohibiting abortion? Prohibiting gay marriage? Obviously, the environment doesn't take first place. So, "highly critical" or not, their voting record belies their supposed convictions. They're being bought by something the GOP is selling. And it ain't protecting the environment.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

5. Who said they were voting for Bush? :)

The gentleman I know has never voted for Bush and has no intention to this time either. In fact, we had a v-e-r-y long discussion one day about Bush and he sounded no different than a DUer in his dislike of Shrub.

These tend to be folks who are GOP in the Chaffe/Snow mold, who are economical/socially a bit more conservative in the old-scool GOP way, not neo-con crazy. They want to take their party back from the wing-nuts as much as we want them out, and return it to it's environmental roots. Yes, Republicans HAVE been good to the enviroment in the past. :) Today's neos have just forgotten it.

I should add that REP America was standing next to every "liberal" environmental group at the big press conference denouncing Bush's pick of Gale Norton. That is where I first heard of them. That took some balls, and I respect them for it.

[enough]

3. Yes

I know several people who are involved with this organization.

They are well meaning sincere and civic-minded people who are pretty savvy about environmental issues and are heartbroken (that's the word for it) about what Bush* is doing on environmental issues.

To me this is sort of like being a woman and staying in a religion that doesn't think you are fit to be a priest.

I can't understand how and why they stay republicans. I haven't yet asked them what they are going to do in the next presidential election. These are people who have been republican since birth. We get along by not discussing national politics, though we are active in local enviornmental ssues and work together fine. (I live in a republican-dominated area where bi-partisan is the only way to get anything done.)

They are truly disgusted with the Bushistas on environmental issues, and I think they may very well not vote for him, even if it means they will stay home on election day.

Of course these are just the local folks that I know. It's perfectly possible that the national organization is set up to whitewash the Bush* record. If they try to do that, the people I know here won't fall for it.

[spanone]

6. Well, there's money in that there environment....

think of it.....oil, forestry, coal, gas, these are things the environment provides so they are pro environment. It's those damn governmental regulations of the environment that repugs hate.

[ldoolin]

7. I've heard of 'em

REP is mostly made up of the dwindling liberal/Ripon Society wing of the Republicans, the sort who used to be found in significant numbers in the Sierra Club and Zero Population Growth. Dan Evans, Mark Hatfield, Paul McCloskey, Jim Jeffords types.

REP is a good group and very solid on environmental issues. The Republican Party has been taken over by religious right nuts, defense spending nuts, black helicopter nuts, Freepers, and libertarian voodoo economics think tank wonks. But can we drop the blind partisanship and maybe admit that there can be such a thing as a liberal Republican, and that liberal Republicans should be encouraged and supported in taking back their party?

On edit: REP and like minded Republicans, and also blue collar union members of the sort who hunt and own guns, are exactly the kind of swing voters who are most likely to cross over and help us win in November. We should be speaking to those issues (environment, union members, etc.) instead of trying to woo those who have no intention of voting for us with pro-war or social conservative issues.