Sheep dogging is first gaining credibility by criticizing democrats and then encouraging the voters to still vote democratic because that is the lesser of two evils. It is also a way to short circuit real efforts at reform. See The Democratic Party is the More Effective of Two Evils.
This accurately describes what I am facing in Washington state and have observed nationwide.
Recently I met with a speaker for I-732 which is an initiative for a carbon tax in Washington state. He routinely found representatives of Social Justice Movements, unions, and environmental organizations speaking against a middle of the road carbon tax using talking points of fossil fuel corporations. It is – as always - all about power and money.
See The Environmental Groups Killing a Carbon Tax.
See You'd think the Sierra Club would back carbon-cutting I-732 - but you'd be wrong
See Sierra Club Members Dispute Sierra Club Position on Carbon Tax Measure.
See What is going on? Why the Big Rift Over I-732 Among Environmental Groups?
See Fuse voter guide “not-so” progressive stance on I-732
See How a tax on carbon has divided Northwest climate activists
See Open Letter from the Millennial Leaders of Carbon Washington and the Yes On 732 Campaign
See When Climate Campaigners Miss the Point
See The left’s opposition to a carbon tax shows there’s something deeply wrong with the left
Groups to Beware of:
-350 Bill McKibbon campaigned tirelessly for Obama in 2012 without asking anything in return. 350 recently announced they would campaign for Hillary with no preconditions because this election is – as always - just too important. 350 changed from supporting the I-732 carbon tax to being neutral.
-Bullitt Foundation
Forest Ethics - Geoff Snyder correctly said, "In a moment when it mattered most, the progressive opposition had chosen - rightly or wrongly - to focus on its own self-preservation rather than on his generation's future." See reference 13.
-Friends of the Earth has openly opposed Jill Stein to support Clinton.
-League of Conservation Voters only supports democrats without ever holding them accountable. They fund raise for democrats by painting a fearful picture of republicans.
-NextGen Climate has joined 350 in campaigning for Hilary without asking anything in return.
-The Sierra Club supports carbon taxes except in Washington where it hopes to collaborate with unions and social justice movements for more power. It earlier supported fracking, saying natural gas was a “bridge fuel” to renewable energy and is frequent a fan of electing democrats.
-Union of Concerned Scientists
-Unions have traditionally sided with fossil fuel industries and democrats while only pretending to be on the side of environmentalists. This has been bad for all union members as well as environmentalists. I can only hope environmentalists have had enough of being told to quietly go to the back of the bus because there issues are not as important as the preservation of corrupt unions.
-Washington Conservation Voters
See also Don’t Let These People or Organizations Fool You
I am certain that social justice groups unions, and environmental organizations will eventually regret selling their souls to the 1%. Unfortunately, and much more tragically, climate change is not a political football we can kick down the road to let someone else deal with. Future generations may be very unforgiving.
References:
4-Labor
7-March 2016 – Welcome Yes on I-732
8-Time for a carbon tax? A former Bush official says yes
9-Don’t Let These People or Organizations Fool You
11-Hijacking the Environmental Movement Just Say No to 350
12-Duke Energy Foundation invests nearly $450,000 in Florida environmental nonprofits
13-Dembicki, Geoff Are We Screwed? How a New Generation is Fighting to Survive p. 104, Bloomsbury Publishing Place, 2017.
14-
15-
FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting) had this headline today: “What Got Left Out–and Right-Spun–at VP Debate”, and never mentioned that #AjumaBaraka and the #GreenParty were left out of the “debate.”
FAIR has mentioned #JillStein once since 2012, and it was actually only in the context of self-promotion when Dr. Stein quoted FAIR.
http://fair.org/home/what-got-left-out-and-right-spun-at-vp-debate/