By Dan Murphy
Every family has a member, or a friend, or perhaps a colleague at work who does not believe in recycling, and throws their bottles or papers in the regular trash. Their reasons are usually because they believe it doesn’t do any good and that in the end, at the garbage facility, all of the recycling ends up in the trash anyway.
I like to call these non-believers “environmental slobs.” Their lack of willingness to at least attempt to do what little they can to clean up our environment by dropping their plastics or papers in the proper receptacle is unacceptable. I have an environmental slob in my family who, despite being told again and again not to dump recycling items in the regular trash big, does it anyway.
Earlier this month we received a letter to the editor from Irvington resident Lucas Chu who has begun a campaign to ban plastic straws. “Climate change is happening here and now – and as a young person, I’m terrified… A Green New Deal will keep Americans safe from climate change and create millions of green jobs… Any presidential candidate who wants to be taken seriously on climate and earn the support of young people needs to support Rep. Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Markey’s resolution.
“I am currently embarking on a campaign to reduce carbon footprints, starting with the reduction of plastic waste through my Stand Against Plastic Straws campaign in conjunction with inaugural Harvard University’s Service Starts with Summer program. The mayor and Village Board of Irvington have endorsed my campaign to switch every food vendor in the Village of Irvington away from plastic straws,” wrote Chu, whose letter received a response from Carl Pagano of Harrison.
“Yes, climate change is happening here and now, and it also happened there, then, in the past, and in the distant past,” wrote Pagano. “Enough to terrify a person for 4 billion years… These climate change models have been wildly inaccurate.
“The same old boring prediction was brought up: we have 12 years to implement the ‘green’ agenda or the world ends. This prediction has been made since the 1980s, so I guess the world has ended several times already but nobody seemed to notice.
“To all supporters of the Green New Deal, note that one nuclear power plant easily produces as much power as 1,500 wind turbines. Wind and solar do not come close to producing the amount of power provided by nuclear, oil, natural gas and coal,” wrote Pagano, who does not address the issue of recycling.
We hope Mr. Pagano does recycle, but the back-and-forth between Pagano and Chu points to the split in our country between republican and democrat, progressive and conservative.
But, sitting in the middle of the views of Pagano and Chu are at least 20 percent of the American electorate, and those independent-minded and moderate-thinking voters like me who will likely determine the outcome of the 2020 election, in states like Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Michigan and Wisconsin.
The recent action of the Trump for President campaign, which decided to thumb its nose by selling Trump plastic straws, may have alienated those independent voters.
As many local governments and environmental groups have supported policies aimed at limiting environmental damage, the Trump campaign has targeted what it calls “liberal paper straws.”
“With the Trump straws, the campaign tapped into widespread disdain for paper straws that simply don’t work,” said Trump 2020 Communications Director Tim Murtagh. “People don’t like being told they can’t do simple things, and so the Trump straws were born.”
The Trump plastic straws, which can be purchased in a batch of 10 for $15, have helped the Trump 2020 campaign raise more than $750,000, with almost half of the money coming from first-time donors. “Liberal paper straws don’t work. Stand with President Trump and buy your pack of recyclable straws today,” is how the campaign is selling its product.
Republican pollster Whit Ayres said the plastic Trump straws point to the fact that “Part of (Trump’s) appeal to his base is that he is famously and proudly not politically correct.” The Federalist writer Emilly Jashinsky wrote that “The brilliance of Trump straws is obvious…
“Let’s consider this in the context of straws. Step one is recognizing the national proliferation of paper straws as a nonpartisan and apolitical gripe over a partisan and political product. Step two is using that gripe to persuade a nonpartisan audience that plastic straws are a casualty of the left’s radical effort to transform life as we know it. Trump is one of the few people capable of successfully fulfilling that mission,” wrote Jashinsky.
But Paul Waldman writes in the Washington Post that Trump straws only sell to his base, and may alienate the other 50 percent of the country.
“From straws to wind turbines to socially conservative issues, Trump is deliberately amplifying public tensions by seizing on divisive topics to energize his base, according to campaign aides and White House advisers,” wrote Waldman. “Again, this is what happens when you spend too much time watching Fox News.
“The trouble with basing your campaign strategy on what excites those people is that anyone who would pay the Trump campaign $15 for 10 straws was almost surely already going to vote. And, ‘To hell with the environment, ha!’ is not actually a popular position to take.
“What Trump doesn’t seem to understand is that his relentless focus on pleasing his base also mobilizes the opposition against him… His campaign can sell all the plastic straws it wants, but it probably won’t be enough to change the dynamics actually driving this election,” wrote Waldman.
Those of us in the middle of our political discourse (this reporter did not vote for Trump, nor did I vote for Hillary in 2016) may not be inclined to support a New Green Deal, but are willing to eliminate plastic straws and plastic bags at the supermarket. And we are willing to recycle Isn’t that the least we can do to try and save our environment?
And let’s analyze how Trump plastic straws looks to the next generation of Americans, like Lucas Chu, who is trying to eliminate plastic straws in Irvington, or my daughter, Katie, who just bought a pair of metal straws to take with her as she begins her freshman year of college.
I bought a pack of paper straws at the supermarket recently to try them out, and I would agree with the Trump campaign that they are not as appealing as plastic straws. And I’m not yet inclined to use a metal straw and keep it with me throughout my day.
But I am willing to give the paper straws a chance and be aware of the problems of plastic straws and plastic bottles and how it causes harm to our environment. To ignore that fact, and to not throw a bottle or paper in the proper bin right in front of you, is lazy.
We wonder how many elected officials in Westchester support the president and his fundraising plastic straw campaign. Zero?
