Brace for the Opportunism of the Left

How the election of Obama to the White House can be seen as a mandate for an extremist climate change agenda is beyond me, but that's just what is being said by the folks at World Watch Institute.

"Environmental leaders in the United States and abroad quickly suggested that the election reflected the American people's desire to reverse President Bush's damaging climate change policies. "Today's landslide election of Barack Obama and pro-environment candidates across the country signals a strong rejection of the failed energy policies of the last eight years and a historic mandate for large-scale, transformational change," said Brent Blackwelder, president of Friends of the Earth - U.S." (complete article here)

The election was seen as complete victory by leaders of virtually every environmental organization. (See what they have to say here.)

I guess I can understand their exuberance, however, the election wasn't about the environment. It was about the economy. It was about high gasoline prices and a tanking stock market. It was about a couple of wars that the left-leaning media has vilified. It was about dissatisfaction with government that, although largely due to the extreme political partisanship in Congress, was blamed on the President and his administration. It was also about misplaced guilt among a portion of the population in supporting a candidate that embodied their vision of long-past injustices perpetrated by those long dead. Finally, it embodied perceived opportunity by those in the populace who have embraced a culture of victimization to elect one they thought to be "one-of-their-own" who in fact is nothing like them, but is fully a member of the self-proclaimed elitist class.

Opportunism by the left will characterize the coming months. We must brace ourselves for the onslaught and we must prepare to engage in the battle of ideas. We must seek to educate in order to overcome the misperceptions of reality embraced by many. We must prepare to defend our country from those who would make it into something else -- something akin to the weak-kneed Europeans who have bowed to the vision of the few. We must face the cultural war that has gained ascendancy and threatens to destroy the values that we hold dear. We must engage.