South Carolina political scientist connects environmental movement to racism

Environmentalists can get pretty radical about
their movement. But is it more about leftist politics?

Protecting the environment is less important to Upstate lawmakers than to their counterparts in the rest of South Carolina, according to the Conservation Voters of South Carolina.

The CVSC is making these claims after compiling a conservation scorecard of legislative votes during the past two years. The “environmentalists" also found that “Democrats supported conservation issues more often than Republicans.”

The report is in Tuesday's The State newspaper.

The fact that environmentalists like the left is no surprise, but now environmentalism is tied to race.

“The Pee Dee, Midlands and Lowcountry generally enjoy greater racial diversity than the Upstate and tend to be more moderate on environmental issues,” said Winthrop University political science professor Scott Huffman. He is The State newspaper's go-to guy when a quote is needed to support political stereotypes.

The CVSC labelled Sen. Lee Bright, R-Spartanburg, as one of the worst “Demons of Dirt.”

He defended himself against the racism via pollution charge. Bright said: the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency “has had a stranglehold on the country as far as business and industry moving forward. (The EPA has) a lot more in common with the folks in the environmental movement than they do the average South Carolinian.’’

Bright is exactly right about that. It is not very smart for business to pollute the environment.

One other note, that The State did not reference: 12 of the top 20 public school districts in South Carolina are in the Upstate. So are the children the CVSC don't like, smarter than the ones they do?

That question was not asked.