Unlike many middle aged adults, I did not become a conservative; I was born that way. I first noticed it when I campaigned for Goldwater when I was 12, and was glued to the TV listening to Reagan’s speech during the 1964 election. Even a lifetime of associating mostly with liberals has not altered my conservative outlook. In fact, it has only strengthened my observation that liberals talk a good game but do not deliver. Conservatism has historically been the ideology that most benefited the environment. We deal with facts, not feelings and bluster. I think they use to call that the scientific method, before science was abandoned for political correctness.

This was never more evident than when I became the administrator for the $30 million annual budget of the California Environmental License Plate (ELP) fund under Governor Deukmejian. The governor’s administration took over after Jerry Brown. Conventional wisdom dictated that Governor Brown was a champion of environmental protection. But just looking at his past budgets for the ELP fund, which was supposed to be spent for environmental projects, was instructive. Most of the money was flitted away on nonsensical projects in districts of political allies. For example a music camp in Lake Tahoe for the City of Berkeley.  Besides not being an environmental project, there was nothing to show for it, if you don’t count rumors of great parties at the lake. You can imagine what went on at those parties, and I got an earful during the audit. On the other hand, our “slash and burn Republican” administration used the money to partner with reputable nonprofit organizations and local governments to purchase, create, enhance and manage thousands of acres of wetlands and endangered species habitat. For eight years we ran environmental circles around Brown’s past budgets.

Did we get any credit for it? Well, you know the answer. In fact, within the first couple of years of Governor Deukmejian’s term, the Democrat legislature demanded that he submit a report to the legislature detailing how he spent the funds and how he helped the environment. They thought they would use the report to bash the governor during the next election. Problem is, I jumped at the opportunity to toot our own horn and listed in glorious detail all of our good environmental deeds. All verifiable. I also contrasted it with the previous governor’s administration. The report was delivered and quickly buried. We never saw it again; nor were we ever asked to submit another report.

This is but one, minor example of why conservatives are the real environmentalists. We need better PR, but in the past, we only had the MSM to help us out. Now, with a new outlet, we all need to work to inform the public that they have been fed a lie for decades. Liberals do not walk the talk. Conservatives make a difference. A big difference.