Who really IS the greenest?

The cover story of Newsweek magazine this week is entitled "Environment and Leadership: Who's the Greenest of Them All?" The cover story seeks to pull apart the environmental records and stances of the three major candidates- Senators Clinton, Obama, and McCain.

"Environment and Leadership" stems from two competing visions of democracy. First, the plebiscitary vision, which states that the leaders should follow public opinion. So if Americans believe that global warming is an important issue, the candidates should all be taking it seriously. So far this is the case, even with the Republican candidate, who did not vote on any of the fifteen key environmental votes (to not upset anyone as he walks this fine line), but still has a considerably better overall voting record than most Republicans. Hopefully public pressure in this case will make all of the candidates stick to their promises down the road.

The second vision of democracy that can be seen here is the pluralist vision. Special interest groups like the League of Conservation Voters have great influence over their member's votes. Their endorsement will mean a great deal to the candidate who gets it. It's a big deal that they are still considering McCain, the Republican candidate, and if he does come out with stronger stances about emissions rates and fuel-efficiency standards and gets the endorsement, it will perhaps be the day that environmentalists stop voting Democrat as a bloc.