“Nobody takes care of what everybody owns.”
In case any of you thought conservatives were actually coming around on the climate issue, take Grover Norquist (please!). He is head of Americans for destroying the global commons Tax Reform and “arguably Washington’s leading right-wing strategist,” the “Field Marshal ” of the Bush tax cuts for the rich.
Norquist makes one of the most unintentionally revealing comments I’ve ever heard from a hard-core anti-government conservative about the inherently destructive nature of modern U.S. conservativism. It occurs at the end of a short N.Y. Times magazine interview today (see here). Let me start with Norquist’s paean to self-destruction:
You’ve just published your first book, “Leave Us Alone: Getting the Government’s Hands Off Our Money, Our Guns, Our Lives.” That’s what we want the government to do — to get out of … our decision to wear a helmet when we ride a Harley.
[If we're self-destructive ... back off! How about safety belts and air bags -- should they be voluntary, too, Grover? Heck, let's make FAA safety inspections voluntary -- oops, too late!]
Leave us alone? Isn’t that an adolescent philosophy? The state treats us like 12-year-olds. They tell you how much water can be in your toilet bowl, how big your car can be.
[Okay, so as we turn the planet into one big desert, at least we'll get to flush all the fresh water down our toilets we want to. And then we have the standard fuel-economy=small-cars canard. Let's all drive Hummers with no air bags and safety belts. It's our birth-right, isn't it? (Note to self: I thought 12-year olds can't drive.)]
You can’t possibly think that American cars are too small. Everyone would have bigger and safer cars if they didn’t have those CAFE standards, corporate average fuel economy.
[Actually, bigger ain't safer, as SUVs have shown everyone. And if everybody had cars designed for safety, everyone would be safer. But no, we should do nothing to prepare for the coming of peak oil or to stop our now nearly half trillion dollar annual trade deficit in oil from further enriching a bunch of government that don't like us.]
Many prominent conservatives feel the movement needs to be more environmentally conscious and are recommending big-government solutions like a carbon tax. But nobody listens, because it’s nonsense.
[Translation: "But no conservative policymakers listen, because I would crush them."]
And then there is the unintentionally revealing quote of the year:
Don’t you see how regulation could help? If you let people own their land, they take care of it. That’s why privately owned land is always taken care of, and the parks look like cesspools. Nobody takes care of what everybody owns.
[Translation: "As long as conservatives run the executive branch, our parks will look like cesspools. We refuse to take care of what belongs to everyone -- because what the heck is in it for us?" (By the way, Grover, thanks to the unregulated greed of the subprime mortgage industry, millions of privately owned, but now-unaffordable homes aren't taken care of, but I digress.)]
Conservatives may not believe in the science, but that disbelief can’t stop unrestricted human emissions of greenhouse gases from causing widespread desertification, catastrophic sea level rise, and the loss of more than half the planet’s species. But conservatives can stop progressives and moderates from taking the measures needed to avoid the death of a livable climate. And if they do, the climate’s epitaph will read:
“Nobody takes care of what everybody owns.”
Previous in TP Climate Progress
This election is does not hinge on any of Grover Norquist’s issues. Climate is a minor issue in this election.
Thanks for making explicit the ridiculousness implicit in Norquist’s pronouncements.
I don’t get the Tragedy of the Commons thing. One would have thought that conservatives were strong on personal responsibility, and if everybody owns something, you are letting yourself and society down by not looking after it.
But then, since Margaret Thatcher said that there was no such thing as society in 1987, we don’t have to worry about that …
Adding a child to his family might shift his outlook. Probably not.
My advice to the wife is – never allow Grover to bath the kids.
Well, to be fair, there are various flavors of conservatives, and for what it’s worth, useful actions will need more of them. Hence, whacking anyone who thinks they’re conservative (Governor Arnold?) seems counterproductive, so maybe more precise labels are needed.
I haven’t studied the whole website, but at least, on the surface, there might be some elements of common ground with these folks (unlike Norquist), at least on some issues:
http://www.rep.org/ .
A minor chuckle concerning SUV’s.
Every fall at the first sign of snow, the first vehicle on it’s lid in the medium is a SUV….without fail…
What parks are cesspools?
Here are two –
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004021541_weblakeroosevelt18.html
lovely picture –
http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/ssrs/story?id=3782
Park maintenance projects are not sexy and are often overlooked. NPS estimates they have a $8 billion backlog. When GWB first ran, he accused the previous administration of disgraceful negligence in not maintaining National Parks. He proposed a solutions but did not fund it. He spent the money on other things. The maintenance backlog in 2000 was about half of the current size. Big talk, no action.
Tom:
Exactly so. They zoom by, forgetting that if the roads are slick, it don’t matter if you’ve got sixwheel drive — it’s still hard to stop, and you still skid. And of course, they jamb on the breaks and if they’re really lucky they kid into the island – if not, they flip like a turtle.
I don’t follow US politics in detail, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Grover Norquist is doing this as part of what is ultimately a big rent-seeking exercise. I wonder who is funding it?
There is every reason to believe that we can solve the climate change. We must start thinking of way to solve things and start telling each other what we want. Many of the things that will happen with our climate in the furture is the result of previous wrongdoings. The good stories is that we can start to fix things today so that the consequences of the climate change is less dramatic that predicted. It is an universal law that we are given the things that we ask for. We must ask for things that can help us solve the climate change.
The irony that always gets me:
Without fail, the conservatives crying “the government treats us like we’re 12 years old!” are adults relentlessly trapped in the mind of a 12 year old. Exhibit A & B (of multitudes): Grover and our juvenile president
Scruss,
“I don’t get the Tragedy of the Commons thing.”
It’s not exactly complicated. Try this game if you really don’t understand it.
http://www.bunnygame.org/
Our parks do not generally resemble cesspools.
http://www.sheffield.gov.uk/out–about/parks-woodlands–countryside/parks/a-z-city-district–local–parks/endcliffe-park
Maybe that’s because we value our publicly owned land and services, so we invest in them.
“Nobody takes care of what everybody owns” is one of the most staggeringly glib, stupid maxims of libertarian conservatism. Of course, as has been mentioned, there are several stripes of conservatism. Some are less stupid than others.
No single individual has been more destructive of our public life in America than Grover Norquist.
“I don’t get the Tragedy of the Commons thing. One would have thought that conservatives were strong on personal responsibility, and if everybody owns something, you are letting yourself and society down by not looking after it.”
Sure.
And if you own something individually then if you don’t take care of it then you lose the value of it.
Which do you think is the stronger motivator of human behaviour? “Letting yourself and society down” or money?