Why I’m voting for Biden: He’ll be a better steward of the environment than Trump
Trump claimed today that he was the “number one environmental president since Teddy Roosevelt” in a press conference where he signed a proclamation that put a moratorium on drilling off the coast of Florida.
This one was a real head spinner.
For context, Obama banned drilling off the coast of Florida in 2016 and Trump lifted that ban in 2018. So now he’s the greatest environmental President because he re-enacted a ban that he lifted?
Let’s be clear on why he lifted the ban: Trump wants to win Florida, and most Florida residents don’t like dealing with potential oil spills or their beautiful views being ruined. It’s not a dumb political calculation, but it most certainly does not make the man who pretends that climate change is a hoax the second coming of Teddy Roosevelt.
I care about the environment, and I understand that not everyone does. But when a President reduces fuel economy standards for cars and trucks, increases coal leases on public lands, rolls back protections on migratory birds, revokes rules that prevent dumping of mining debris in streams, opens a path for mining near the BWCA, and then calls himself an “environmental president,” I hope you’ll agree with me that this is a farce.
It wouldn’t be a Trump speech if he didn’t go off topic, and one of today’s digressions revealed a complete lack of knowledge about the U.S. Constitution. In this speech about the environment, he told the crowd that “if Joe Biden gets in, your Second Amendment is gone” and that there’s been a lot of “pressure put on me in the last four years to make massive changes to the Second Amendment.”
I’m pretty sure I don’t need to explain why both of those statements are absurd, but this is the era of Trump, so I’ll say it. The President does not have the power to change or remove amendments to the Constitution –– that can only be done when there is agreement by ⅔ of the U.S. House, ⅔ of the U.S. Senate, and ⅔ of state legislatures.
In other words, you can put your gun back in your holster because there’s no chance of the Second Amendment being taken away. And, hey, if you want to use that gun to shoot a grizzly bear that you baited with a doughnut soaked in bacon grease or shoot swimming caribou from a motorboat, go right ahead, because thanks to one of Trump’s environmental rollbacks, you can do that now too.
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