The Tea Party Comes to Monterey

Sunday, May 13, 2012

As we all know, the Tea Party is nothing new; it is simply the most recent manifestation of the rightwing extremism that has been an integral part of the Republican Party for over three decades. What is new is that what used to occupy the fringe has morphed into the mainstream of the GOP. Fortunately, increasing numbers of people in the media are coming to realize that the Republican Party is being dominated by its most reactionary and radical elements�and they�re hell-bent on moving America back to the 19th Century, both economically and socially.

Just this week, I witnessed the deleterious effects of the rightwing wave that swept the nation in 2010 and allowed Republicans to take over many statehouses as well as the House of Representatives. I work in marine policy; in 2000, the government embarked on an initiative to incorporate marine spatial planning (MSP) and ecosystem-based management (EBM) into our ocean policy. It was an attempt to overcome the huge disparity between the relative sophistication with which we manage our terrestrial habitats and the minimal steps we�ve taken to improve the management of our coastal systems.

When President Obama came into office in 2008, he established new priorities for our National Ocean Policy (NOP). These included building MSP and EBM into a new national framework to create a more rational and efficient coastal management system. Combining data on human uses of ocean and coastal resources with the best available natural science promised a new era of ocean conservation and improved management.

But the industry groups who profit from exploiting the nation�s coastal resources always viewed MSP and EMB with trepidation, as these will likely restrict their activities. When the Tea Party swept into power in 2010, the industry groups finally had their allies in Congress (most of whom were bought and paid for through lobbying and campaign contributions). They began their campaign by deriding MSP and EBM as �ocean zoning�, which in their view was simply a burdensome regulation allowing the government to restrict access to what should be purely open resources, i.e., open to unbridled exploitation. Republicans proceeded to pack the House Natural Resource Committee with industry hacks, and held hearings in which industry representatives greatly outnumbered environmental groups. MSP and EMB were fallaciously attacked as �job killing� regulations promulgated by �big government�.

The bad-mouthing plan worked.

This past month the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which oversees U.S. ocean policy, cancelled its MSP and EMB initiatives and began closing the Marine Protected Areas Center in Monterey, CA. The reason: the GOP-controlled House simply reduced the budgets for these initiatives to zero. Even though the initiatives formerly had bipartisan support, and were based on more than a decade of scientific input, they were scrapped at the behest of the interests that now control the Republican Party.

Most Americans have never, and will never, hear of the Marine Protected Areas Center, nor will they know how the nation�s coastal environments will suffer now that these policies have been sidelined. And that�s the way the Republicans like it. They seduce low-information voters with platitudes, and stoke people�s anger with faux-patriotic vitriol; once in power, they use that power to undermine any trust the public might have in government action. This creates a pernicious cycle in which corporate interests are continually placed ahead of the public interest.

November will give the nation a chance to turn the tide and vote the GOP extremists out of office. Here�s hoping voters are up to the challenge. If they aren�t, you can rest assured that the rightwing extremists will find a way to undermine all kinds of public institutions in communities all across America.

Voices of Reason

The Tea Party Comes to Monterey