Why I No Longer Favor Working Through The System

I’m not telling you to follow my lead. I respect all sincere efforts by anyone who is trying to make life better.

I bought a signed copy of Earth In The Balance even though my name isn’t Dick or Jeanne.

So, if you read me at all, by now you know that I’m a passionate climate activist. In 1988, I met Al Gore who was on tour promoting his then new book, Earth in the Balance. Twelve years later, American voters picked him as their president.

The Supreme Court had other ideas. Along partisan lines, the Court overruled the majority of American voters, and installed an oil profiteer in the White House. The climate activist who the voters chose was denied the office. The predictable consequences — now visible to all but the most obtuse people — highlight the results of that terrible and fateful decision.

Working Within A Corrupt System

I discovered Bernie Sanders in 2016. I liked and agreed with what he was saying. Indeed, that major candidates take corporate money and other assistance from lobbyists (for example, PACs) is no secret. And we all know that corporations aren’t giving money out of charity — they want policies favorable to them. For example, Big Oil is subsidized by government action in an obvious, although legally deniable, arrangement of “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.” Yes, destroying the climate and dooming everyone’s children is…