Going Green? All the Way, Baby. Voting Green? Okay, not that far.

I think I might qualify as an environmentalist. I am very concerned about my impact on the environment. I care about what kind of earth I leave to the generations behind me. I believe, as C.S. Lewis suggested, that expectation for a better world (heaven) should make me even more inclined to make a difference in this one.

To this end, I do my best to work towards eco-friendliness. I’ve made myself some shopping bags and take them with me faithfully. Paper or plastic? I go with cloth. I don’t even use their bags to put my produce or bulk items in–I bring in my own heavy duty bags (recycled from work.) I recycle everything I can–and if I can’t recycle it at the city recycling center, I find a way to reuse it at home (or to not buy it at all.) I use every bit of white space in my paper before sticking it in a bag to recycle it.

I make my own laundry soap and clean almost anything with vinegar. I’ve pretty much eliminated “paper products” from my life. I use cloth napkins, hankies, and pads. I hibernate or turn off my computer when I leave the room. I keep my shades down during the bright summer afternoons to keep from using extra energy to keep the house cool. I finally got a blanket for my hot water heater (woo-hoo!) My worms for vermiculture should arrive in the mail any day now.

I buy used instead of new, I give away instead of throwing away. I don’t buy if I don’t need. I grab the paper that would otherwise be thrown away at work to use as scratch paper. I think I probably qualify as a bona-fide green do-gooder. Or if not bona-fide, I’m at least a pretty good wanna-be.

But what I don’t do, and don’t think I’ll ever do, is vote on the basis of environmentalism. Because what I’ve seen of political environmentalism is basically the lefts version of “legislating morality”. They think that if they just make all sorts of laws protecting the environment and punishing or forbidding its desecration, that somehow that’ll make a difference. And maybe it will. But at what cost? At the cost of people’s liberties? At the cost of our economy? At the cost of an even more massive bureaucratic government?

I have the unfortunate luck to be someone who cares about what the left has co-opted as “liberal issues.” Environmentalism, women’s rights, public health, education–those are some of my concerns. I just don’t agree with the lefts way of going about those issues. Politically, I do more than lean to the right–I believe in limited goverment, fiscal conservativism, local control, strong foreign policy, and that America has both the privelege and responsibility to act as a force for freedom in the world.

So I find myself stuck in the middle of a sad little fight. The environmental blogs that I read and enjoy are up in arms about this coming election, and so am I–on the other side.

I enjoy the tips on green living–I enjoy sharing commonalities with people who also vermicompost and deal with people’s funny looks at their homemade shopping bags. I just don’t enjoy people bashing my candidate on one point (environmentalism) and then accusing conservatives of being “one issue voters.” I listed my political values a couple of paragraphs up–do those look like single issue topics?

–So at this point, I’m just ranting. Or maybe I have been all along. But come on, guys, give me a break–just because environmentalism isn’t my political litmus test doesn’t mean I’m a hard-nosed, knock-down-the-little-guys and pollute-the-water-system junky (or the Devil incarnate). I’m a citizen who cares about a deep variety of issues (that people across the political spectrum care about) and votes accordingly. So please, calm down and let me weigh EVERYTHING–instead of just your ONE hot-button issue.