Sportsmen Turning Against Republicans

"Betrayal is the only truth that sticks." - Arthur Miller

When the history of Republican and Conservative domination of American government at the turn of the 21st Century is written, it will be written in the indelible ink of betrayal, incompetence, and greed. 

Sportsmen could be counted upon to support George Bush and other Republicans during and since the 2000 election cycle.  Count those days as long gone.

A recent spate of articles in Field and Stream magazine stand as stark evidence that sportsmen nationwide are waking up to the drastic betrayal Conservatives, Republicans and the Bush Administration have served them by selling out precious natural habitats to energy and mining concerns.

Witness these choice words:

Rod and gun in hand, and backing the Second Amendment right to own firearms, President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have won the hearts of America+óGé¼Gäós sportsmen. Yet the two men have failed to protect outdoor sports on the nation+óGé¼Gäós public lands. With deep ties to the oil and gas industry, Bush and Cheney have unleashed a national energy plan that has begun to destroy hunting and fishing on millions of federal acres throughout the West, setting back effective wildlife management for decades to come.

[UPDATE: The Bush Administration just determined that manmade ponds on golf courses qualify as "wetlands".  Astounding!]
In New Mexico, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado sportsmen are rapidly turning against the powers of greed embodied by the Republican party's mismanagement of natural resources.

Alan Lackey has been an elk and mule deer guide in the high country of New Mexico+óGé¼Gäós Sangre de Cristo Mountains for over 21 years. When he is not pulling a pack string into the mountains, he+óGé¼Gäós a ranch manager in Roy, New Mexico. Before that, he owned the Chevrolet dealership in Raton, where he also served as the president of the Chamber of Commerce. By his own description, he is a deeply conservative person.

Like huge numbers of sportsmen across the American West, however, Lackey is quick to tell you that there is nothing conservative about the pace or scale of energy development on public lands in the region. +óGé¼+ôThis is a giveaway of public resources at the cost of every other value we hold,+óGé¼-¥ he says. +óGé¼+ôOil and gas production has been elevated to the primary use of our public lands, even when the local people say no to it. The whole plan is like burning down your house to stay warm for one night.+óGé¼-¥

Why are Republicans selling our national resources?  It's simple: economics.

It+óGé¼Gäós largely a myth that public lands are restricted from development on a massive scale. Of all federal lands, 88 percent are open to oil and gas exploration. Until recently, much of that land was ignored because energy prices were too low to make it worth developing. That has changed, as anybody who pays a heating bill can tell you.

There is a responsible way to balance energy and resource management interests, but that takes the work of informed biologists.  Unfortunately, Republicans have biologists serving only one role: rubberstamping drilling permits.

For veteran BLM biologist Steven Belinda, who was assigned to the Pinedale office two years ago, the disappointment of working as what he terms a +óGé¼+ôbiostitute+óGé¼-¥+óGé¼GÇ¥simply rubber-stamping energy development on the public lands+óGé¼GÇ¥ruined his dream job in the famed country of the Upper Green River, the home of elk and grizzlies, antelope and wolverines. Belinda quit the BLM in February to take a job with the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. He told a reporter for the Washington Post that he had spent all but 1 percent of his time in the BLM office working on drilling permits.

+óGé¼+ôIf we continue this trend of keeping biologists in the office and preventing them from doing substantive work,+óGé¼-¥ said Belinda, +óGé¼+ôthere is a train wreck coming for wildlife.+óGé¼-¥

For much, much more on how Republicans have betrayed the interests of American sportsmen check out articles [here], [here], and [here] for starters.

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