Amid environmental anxiety Democrats should be the national green team

The annual national environmental Gallup Poll, conducted last month and yearly since 2001, demonstrates that public anxiety about the quality of the environment has reached historic levels. Meanwhile, to celebrate Earth Day, President Trump, the failed father of fossil fuels, fiddles while the world burns.

Trump once called climate change a “Chinese hoax,” but the public takes the crisis seriously. Only one out of three people believe the quality of the environment is in decent shape. The 35 percent score is down 8 points from last year and matched the all-time lowest rating since the polling firm first asked the question in 2001.

Back in 2015 before Dirty Don became president, fully half (50 percent) of the public had faith in the quality of the environment.

A deep dive into the survey reveals even more disturbing news. Two out of three Americans think the situation is getting even worse. The survey indicates that the biggest worry about environmental problems is water quality. More than half of the public worries about the impact of pollution on our clean water supply. There is significantly more worry about the quality of water than there was about global climate change. So environmental activists should focus on the micro level instead of the macro problem to get the ball rolling in the right direction.

But on Earth Day hope is on the way. Most Americans believe that government should take strong action to end the crisis. The icing on the cake is that most people continue to prioritize environmental protection over fossil fuel development, even after big increase in gasoline prices. This is just one more case of MAGA being completely out of touch with the hopes and dreams of hard-working American families.

The U.S. must act decisively on the will of the people and not bury its head in the oil rich desert sands of the Middle East.

Our erstwhile commander in chief has weaponized his war of choice against Iran as an excuse to proselytize for a surge in gas and oil production. Trump’s war in the Middle East has elevated fossil fuels to the front lines in the midterm election fight. He has tried to change the discussion away from the danger of deadly dirty air and water towards the need for bigger supplies of fossil fuels.

Enviros can’t afford to let him dominate the debate. We must argue that the development of clean energy would really put America first and help the nation avoid dangerous foreign entanglements in a deadly part of the world.

Democrats should be the national green team. The decline in public environmental assessments will appeal to uncommitted voters since the greatest decline in environmental optimism, according to Gallup, over the years has developed among political independents. Green should stand for more money and clean energy.

My party needs to put on its big boy pants and demonstrate the strength of its convictions.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has blazed the path to prosperity for her party with a proposal for a Green New Deal. Her plan for major economic and environmental change is an effective method for revitalizing Trump’s failed economy.

Former President Joe Biden deserves great credit, which he will receive from presidential historians, for his heroic efforts to “Build Back Better” that started the nation’s path to a clean future with groundbreaking jobs and construction projects. The current White House occupant has tried to dismantle the economic and environmental progress that his predecessor began.

The world is warming and changing with catastrophic impacts which include frequent natural disasters that cost us hundreds of billions of dollars.

To prosper financially and to save the planet, the U.S. must fundamentally revitalize its economy, like Europe and China have done, to keep up with the rest of the world. Otherwise, our great nation will become a dirty pile of dust. That would be Trump’s legacy to the nation and planet that he led astray toward decay and destruction.

Brad Bannon is a national Democratic strategist and CEO of Bannon Communications. He writes weekly for The Hill and hosts the popular progressive podcast on power, politics and policy, Deadline D.C. with Brad Bannon.

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