T-Shirt Liberals And New England Hypocrisy

I sent this to the Boston Globe last week as an Op-Ed submission. They didn't run it. Oh well. I sent it to the Boston Herald earlier today, but I'm not going to wait to see if they print it because I probably have a higher readership than they do anyway. Seriously, they give it away outside the train station because nobody will pay to read it. That's what happens when you are the uglier step-sister to the New York Post I guess.

Thanks to Joe for editing advice.
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T-Shirt Liberals. Bumper Sticker Liberals. Limousine Liberals. Checkbook Liberals. They go by many names, and they are everywhere, though not nearly as pervasive in other parts of the country as they are in New England. While living in other regions of the country I was confused by conservatives who derided the "New England liberal elite." I've always been a proud liberal and I couldn't understand how the charge of elitism applied to believing in protecting the environment, workers rights, racial and gender equality, and freedom of speech, among other things. It took me moving to Boston almost three years ago to understand not only why the charge of liberal elitism is so often made, but also so easy for people to believe.

One needs to look no farther than environmental issues for the evidence. The progressives in this region talk a good talk about energy conservation, alternative sources of energy, recycling and mass transportation. These are all great ideas to care about. But the problem with New England liberals is that they treat them all like they are abstract ideas and not an action you actually take to make a difference. Walking all over Boston I often see those pro-environment license plates that generate money for the Environmental Trust, slapped on to the back of 12 miles-per-gallon SUVs. This is a classic bumper sticker liberal move. Put a nice little message on your car that supports the environment, maybe even in the form of something that says you give a little money (in this case about $40 per year) to environmental organizations and then happily drive your fossil fuel-burning behemoth to the symphony guilt-free. Forgive me if I don't applaud their gift to Mother Nature. I think that walking and taking public transportation to get where you need to go does a lot more for the environment than someone slapping a pro-nature message on their car, even if it does send a few dollars to an environmental trust.

Just look at my neighborhood of Beacon Hill. It is a place where a lot of the rich, left-leaning residents had Kerry/Edwards signs in their windows and they are very proud of getting their picture taken for the society pages at events to raise money for environmental causes, among other things. Yet in a neighborhood that is the most perfectly located in the city for using your feet and the subway to get around, the hill is bursting at the seams with fossil-fuel burning vehicles, with a perversely high percentage of them being SUVs and other gas wasting luxury cars. And one only needs to walk around Beacon Hill on a Friday morning to see just how woefully low the number of residents who participate in the city's recycling program is.

Nothing has put the national spotlight on liberal elitism and New England hypocrisy like the Cape Wind project. A lot of otherwise liberal Cape Cod residents have come out fighting against the clean energy project. We're not talking about the usual suspects - conservative hacks backed by the oil and coal industry - but self-described liberals. Their argument usually begins with something like "We agree that we need alternative and renewable energy, but..." followed by a list of reasons as weak as George Bush's for attacking Iraq. It really comes down to a simple case of "not in my back yard."

Even the "liberal lion" Ted Kennedy has come out against the wind farm for no other reason than it might be visible from his family's compound in Hyannis. The senior senator from Massachusetts talks a good game about the need for conservation and renewable sources of energy, but gets around by SUV and private jets instead of public transportation, Amtrak or commercial flights. And even more disheartening, he makes backroom deals with an Alaskan wildlife oil-drilling advocate to get the Cape project killed. One can guess the price to be paid Sen. Stevens of Alaska for his help in protecting Sen. Kennedy's view. Robert Kennedy Jr., a prominent environmentalist, has also come out against Cape Wind, in complete contrast to the rest of the environmental community.

This is why the left is painted in such a bad light. We tell everyone to conserve and argue the need for better energy sources, then jump in our SUVs and fight against a clean energy project because it might be (barely) visible from our backyard. This is not leadership. Until we are willing to make those sacrifices ourselves - using public transportation even if it takes a little longer, recycling, promoting not just the idea of clean energy but also the reality - then we can't expect the rest of the world to take us seriously.

"Save the earth" should not just be catchy t-shirt slogan. All the bumper stickers in the world and big checks written to out to Greenpeace won't make a bit of difference if we just expect everyone else to bear the burden.