I hate clean air and water.

I don't care how much companies pollute rivers and streams.

I don't even like trees.

I just care about tax cuts.

Who am I?

Well, that's easy.

I'm a conservative.

Or at least I'm a progressive caricature of a conservative.

But the caricature is absurd on its face.

Conservatives breathe the same air and drink the same water environmentalists do.

Conservatives love taking their kids to the same national parks environmentalists do.

In fact, the whole idea of national parks was created by a Republican, Ulysses Grant.

The park system was greatly expanded by another Republican, Teddy Roosevelt.

And the Environmental Protection Agency was, yes, established by a Republican, Richard Nixon.

He liked clean air too.

Conservatives want to conserve things.

It's right there in the name.

And one of the things we want to conserve is our environment,

because you can't have a healthy community without a healthy natural environment.

That wasn't even hard for me to say, because I believe it.

Conservatives love the environment every bit as much as environmentalists do.

The question is, what is the best way to protect it?

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