Hunters, anglers: Beware of the GOP (by a republican)

[nosmokes]

http://www.registerguard.com/news/2004/08/25/ed.col.beagle.0825.html">original

August 25, 2004

Guest Viewpoint: Hunters, anglers: Beware of the GOP

By Mike Beagle  
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Now it seems as if the "strenuous life," as Theodore Roosevelt once put it, is under attack by the very party to which he belonged. Yes folks, the Grand Old Party - the Republicans - is inadvertently supporting the soft breakdown of our society. This is the party built on "rugged individualism" and toughness. Or so it was. This attack is not overt in the way that we see things in our daily lives, but it is happening much like the slow and steady demise of the Northwest's legendary wild salmon heritage.

Because of the proliferation of fast-food "value" meals, an over-reliance on technological advancements and motorized equipment and a presidential administration that cozies up to extractive industries, our nation's health continues to deteriorate. With the exception of the U.S. Armed Forces and people who hunt, fish and hike in America's backcountry, the strenuous life that Roosevelt highlighted is being replaced by an obese, diabetes-ravaged and technologically dependent group of people who have no appreciation for the peace and solitude of the natural world. They want things the easy way, rather than earning them with their own sweat equity.

The list of public lands abuses by the current administration is long. It ranges from trying to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (designated by GOP President Dwight Eisenhower) to clear-cutting the Tongass National Forest in Alaska to opening of public lands along the Rocky Mountain front to oil and gas development, to stopping the reintroduction of the grizzly bear in central Idaho to the dismantling of the U.S. Forest Service roadless rule. Hunters and anglers are taking note of a party leadership and president who have absolutely no idea what wild, public land means to the American sports- man.
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I don't know where all hunters and anglers are when it comes to weighing in on these direct frontal assaults on our natural heritage. It is quite obvious that the GOP doesn't know or care. The only thing I can say is that the cherished moment that I shared with my father three years ago in the alpine forest beneath the looming spire of Mount Thielsen will not be forgotten come November.
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Mike Beagle is a Republican and chairman of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers. He lives in the Rogue River basin in Southwestern Oregon.


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Copyright 2004 The Register-Guard

[NMDemDist2]

1. even the Repubs see Bush is bad for the planet

wow

[scarletwoman]

2. Your link has an extra "http" -- doesn't work.

Fix it, pretty please? :hi:

sw

[nosmokes]

4. sorry about that!

thanks mod

[Moderator]

3. Another link to the article.

http://www.registerguard.com/news/2004/08/25/ed.col.beagle.0825.html

[Bernardo de La Paz]

5. kick

[PhuLoi]

6. Rugged individualism and toughness?!

Since when? The preponderance of the repugnican party are whining, combat avoiding, parasitic social pathogens.

[glitch]

7. yes but they talk about it a lot, and saying it makes it so - right?

'banty roosters' as my dear old departed Gram would say.

[MurrayDelph]

8. Teddy Roosevelt

was the last Republican of that sort. I still remember four years ago, when his (great?) grandson spoke at the Republican convention on the idea that "You can be both a Republican and an Environmentalist": he was booed off the stage.

[blindpig]

9. the repugs are taking these people for granted

I guess they figure that years of NRA propaganda has got a lock on the hook & bullet crowd. The dems have been canny about the gun issue this year and this is a wedge that Kerry should exploit. Considering the incredibly evil record that bu$h has amassed on the environment and throw in Chinny's pathetic canned pheasant hunt it should be like shooting fish in a barrel.