During President Barack Obama’s eight years in office, his administration managed to enact many environmental regulations for improving our universally shared home, Planet Earth. I must say, I for one appreciated that. But it seems not everyone would agree with me.
For example, it should be noted that Donald Trump’s prior EPA Administrator, Scott Pruitt, a Cabinet-ranked official, criticized Obama’s record. For reasons which shall remain nameless here, Mr. Pruitt is no longer with us, Cabinet Administrator-wise, continuing to go about making environmental policy. We now have Deputy Administrator Andrew Wheeler, a former coal industry lobbyist, as acting administrator, effective July 9, 2018.
Regardless of who is in charge, I would hope that we can all agree that our global environment, a once healthy, natural, and self-sustaining ecosystem, is not in as good a shape as it could be. She’s rather sickly. It’s also true that no human on earth can instantaneous fix (disappear) the current 8-million metric tons/yr of plastics that choke our oceans.
and the ongoing carbon emissions that eat away at our air supply (the atmosphere). Fixing it is going to take some time, if it can be fixed at all. But at least President Obama, during his term, put forth some efforts toward mitigating the negative impact.
2016: ENTER THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
As some of us are aware, President Trump and company has sought to, and accomplished, rolling back many of those previous Obama regulations, in deference to their short term Capitalistic rewards; that is to say, in the name of profits. My guess is that, from Trump's and the accommodating Republicans’ perspective, the benefit of short term personal monetary gains outweighs the long term consequences of a provably negative environmental impact. In other words, for those who would agree with regulation rollback, they are on board with an “immediate gratification” kind of mindset.
While Donald Trump’s poll numbers seemingly fluctuate from day to day, my understanding is that the bulk of registered Republicans still stand with him. I’ve even heard that although some of the “buyer’s remorse types” who were willing to take a chance on him and have now abandoned him, in spite of that, Trump’s support numbers of those staunch Republicans who remain are slowly creeping upwards. Yes, his numbers are getting better there! Wow, remarkable (to me). Could it be ”Ann Coulter Syndrome” in action, a la Germaine’s OP?
Well, okay… you’ve waded through my preamble and waited long enough. Here comes my punch line (the question):
Can you give me some reasons why ANY person would be AGAINST stronger environmental regulations? Are any of the reasons legit, from your point of view? What’s going on there? Could it be:
-Money is much more important than the environment (my “Capitalism Gone Awry” complaint)?
-Such threats are NOT real (climate change deniers)?
-Threats may be real but are way overblown (Chicken Little Syndrome)?
-Stubbornness (a game of “us against them” and I’m in it to win it!)?
-Other problems should and must take priority (bigger fish to fry)?
-Science and technology can always and adequately deal with anything later that becomes serious enough or life threatening? (Let’s wait until The Sky really is Falling)?
-Environmental ignorance can be bliss (I’ll be at the mall ;)?
-Just_PrimalSoup is the one with the problem (experiencing the liberals’ version of “Ann Coulter Syndrome”)? -[Your suggestions here]
Please explain it (the mindset/justification) to me. I want to understand it better. I especially want to hear from you if you have any formal training in the human psyche, but all please feel free to chime in. I’m listening. Thank you.
B&B orig: 1/28/19
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