Hypocrisy on the Environment
by Andy Obermann

I've always been a fan of disaster movies. I enjoy their silly plotlines, predictability, and cheesy special effects. Usually, the cornier the movie, the more I enjoy it. Sometimes it's just fun not to have to think for a couple of hours.

Having said that, I decided to take advantage of Memorial Day weekend by taking my mother to see the latest grandiose disaster epic, The Day After Tomorrow. I thought it would give me the opportunity to spend some time with her and have a little fun. What I didn't realize, however, is how angry I'd get because of it.

The film fit my entertainment requirements--cheesy and predictable with elaborate special effects and poor acting, but came across as the largest piece of environmental propaganda in history.

It begins with a summit somewhere in India, at which the vice president of the United States--who bore a striking resemblance to Dick Cheney--disregarded the warnings of a global ice age without the passage of the Kyoto Accords (a real-life piece of environmental nonsense sponsored by the UN). Cheney, uh, I mean, the fictitious vice president chose greed over the environment--determining the world economy couldn't handle such nonsense. Consequently, throughout the movie, conservatives are portrayed as evil, greedy, anti-environment myrmidons.

After the summit, predictability ensues as the world nearly ends at the hands of Mother Nature, but is overcome by love and other shenanigans.

The American left, as a warning to those evil conservative Republicans standing in the way of environmental salvation, has embraced this propaganda film. The extreme left wing group, Moveon.org, has supported the film to the point of passing out fliers portraying President Bush as the true source of all environmental damage, dubbing The Day After Tomorrow, "The film President Bush doesn't want you to see."

The makers of the film played up this angle by killing off the fictitious president (who was somewhat Bush-like) after the Northern Hemisphere froze into a giant ice cube, as ridiculous as that sounds.

Moveon.org spokesman, and former vice president and Democratic presidential candidate, Al Gore, has used the film to launch verbal attacks against the Administration and further the extreme environmentalist cause.

In all fairness, Gore has been on an infantile tirade against the Bush Administration for a while. He called the President of the United States a "moral coward" for not "standing up to big oil" back in January and accused both Bush and Cheney of "...dumping pollution in an unrestrained way into the atmosphere" in March, but his rhetoric has increased after the film's release.

Gore claimed that president's environmental policies are "fictitious," while causing irreversible harm to the earth. The former VP is calling for a series of town hall meetings to address climate change, which will inevitably regress into a Bush--bashing extravaganza.

Present day Democratic presidential candidate, John Kerry, hasn't directly addressed the issue (as he so frequently does), but did aloofly claim, "I support a clean environment...the Administration's policies do not." Thanks for clearing that up, Senator.

We can truly see Kerry's position on the environment by the example he sets. The Kerry family has six gas--sucking SUVs, four mansions to heat and cool, and a private jet, which he uses to fly his hairdresser from coast to coast at his whim. Yet Kerry has the gumption to criticize others about energy consumption? I think I could get by on one mansion if I truly cared about the environment.

And let's not forget that Al Gore had no moral outrage when his former boss, Bill Clinton, used taxpayer money to fly his family out of the country for vacation and has no qualms in being flown from coast to coast to give Moveon.org promotional speeches in planes that burn more fossil fuels than a hundred Hummers--very hypocritical to say the least.

This takes us to the heart of the matter. Democratic politicians love to blame Republicans for environmental problems, but take no responsibility unto themselves. Simply put, in their world, Democrats don't cause environmental damage, only evil Republicans do.

The environmentalist movement constantly passes judgment on those who can afford luxury items as wasteful, yet fail to see the hypocrisy in their own leadership.

Look, if someone wants to buy a dozen Escalades and own six palatial mansions, I don't really care. Live it up! But for them to hypocritically criticize their opponents for damage they too produce is ridiculous.

If leading Democrats care so much for environmental causes, I challenge them to lead by example: buy hybrid cars and smaller houses. But if they can't part with their private jet that long, they have no right to lob criticism at conservatives for the same.

Andy Obermann is a 22--year--old senior at a small private college in central Missouri. He is majoring in history and secondary education at Missouri Valley College.