The Do Nothing Strategy: An Expose of National Progressive Politics

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Continuous delay motivated by fear resulted in the inability of the Steering Committee to understand and appreciate the power of grassroots pressure. The Committee refused to move on reauthorizing the ESA in 1994, when we had a Democratic Congress and President. I explained to them that “historically, the party controlling the White House has lost congressional seats in every midterm but 1934 and our job could range from slightly more difficult to nearly impossible in 1995 with Republican control of Congress.” Of course 1995 saw the realization of the Republican Revolution and the Contract on America, led by Newt Gingrich, which had a strong anti-environmental component. But in the face of impending disaster the Steering Committee held fast to its policy of “do nothing” and “delay."

Another key reason articulated in private meetings by the Steering Committee for not pressing for a vote was that, like the Maryland Do Nothing Strategist, they didn’t want to force their friends in the U.S. Congress to vote on a controversial issue in an election year. It’s clear that there is no time when the Steering Committee would put their friends in Congress in that position. It’s now 2003—a decade has passed—and still the Endangered Species Act languishes, unreauthorized. The logging, mining, cattle and oil industries are cheering as they head to the bank, since that failure allows them to more freely destroy unique endangered species and their habitat for profit, with impunity. Those are the species and habitat that protect us all.

Today the ESC describes the current, bleak situation on it’s website like this, “After the 2002 elections, the far right is sensing victory at last. Already, on public lands across the nation, the law is being implemented by a Secretary of Interior who has asserted that the ESA is unconstitutional and backed up by a President whose close ties to extractive industries don’t even raise eyebrows. With industry-favored appointees in every key post, carefully disguised administrative reforms are being crafted to undermine the gains of the last thirty years…. The hounds are baying in Congress too, with the ascension of [anti-environmentalist] darling and ESA foe, Rep. Richard Pombo, to chairmanship of the House Resources Committee.” If only we had moved for reauthorization in 1994.

When I, members of my staff and vast numbers of grassroots Coalition members tried to force the issue of reauthorizing the ESA with the Steering Committee in 1994, I was fired. My crime exactly: asking the grassroots organizational members of the Coalition who were pushing for reauthorization to communicate their thoughts directly to the Steering Committee. A Vice President with the National Audubon Society, upon hearing about this communication and in the process of terminating my employment angrily said, “How dare you lobby me. I don’t need to hear from the grassroots. I know what the grassroots thinks."

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