Citizen Newt

Newt Gingrich an environmentalist? Well, not quite.

In a recent interview, Newt Gingrich discussed his recent adoption of environmental issues and his new book: “A Contract with the Earth”.

Newt, however is no environmentalist. While he may be one of the few Republicans who accepts Global Warming, he claims that we can solve this issue with tax breaks and a significant increase in Nuclear Energy.

Politically, Newt is being sly, trying to get the jump on 2012. Since Republican defeat is a high possibility, and the collapse of the anti-Global Warming, head-in-the-sand, “the science is still out” Neo-Cons is eminent, he’s trying to carve out a new niche, tailored to the enviromentally conservationist elements found in the conservative movement.

Of course he mentions Teddy Roosevelt, who created our National Park System, and manages to give Nixon complete credit for the creation of the EPA. He fails to mention that Roosevelt was a Progressive who later fled the Republican Party to create his own Progressive (Bull-Moose) Party and in respect to the later, the Democratic Congress in the 70’s that pushed for the EPA.

He remains distinctly partisan, a man of division, trying to say that Republicans may have strayed from their green roots, but they’ve always been a party of environmentally friendly, kind and gentle, albeit capital obsessed, greedy, fat white men. He even claims their savior, Reagan, was environmentally friendly, despite the fact he put an industrialist in charge of the Department of Interior and carved up forests and wilderness areas into tiny pieces for the logging, mining and oil industries. Which is one of many crimes against Mother Nature, the “Gipper” carried forth.

This is just another ploy from a natural born politician if you ask me.

Still Newt’s sudden embracing of environmentalism is encouraging. While he’s talking tough on the partisanship as usual, it signals a new era in American politics. Perhaps even the birth of the New Wave Progressive Era, since, it seems as if the Righties are on the ropes. Guys like Newt only capitulate when the writing is on the wall, and there it is in big, bold red letters: GLOBAL WARMING IS A LEGACY WE SHOULD NOT LEAVE TO OUR GRANDCHILDREN.

Still, Progressives should exercise caution when dealing with this new “Conservationist” movement. Sure, it may be a potential ally, it is important to remember that guys like Newt may talk Green, but the only green he’s likely thinking about is the old Greenback. Nuclear energy, tax-breaks for industries? It sounds like the same old Republicans to me.