It can work
When you seek to address a challenge as monumental as the climate crisis, it’s best if you have a number of strategies. Various ways of pursuing environmental progress work differently and are well suited for different people or moments.
Personally, I’ve always admired the strategy of trying to build a bigger tent and crossing the proverbial aisle. That approach aligned well with my former organization, TNC. In my time, TNC worked very hard to maintain its non-partisan approach, which — let’s face it — is sometimes very hard to do. And it usually worked out very well. Time after time, in partnership with other good organizations, TNC developed strong bi-partisan support from voters across all 50 states in the US. And that led to bi-partisan support in Congress for smart conservation policy.
Of course, other strategies work too. Take Greenpeace, for example. They are really good at campaigning against bad — and sometimes good — actors. (I remember how they once campaigned against us at TNC. It was very annoying, but they sure got our attention. And we redoubled our efforts in the area they criticized). Greenpeace frequently campaigns against companies that stand to improve on the environmental front. Often such efforts encourage those same companies to collaborate with centrist environmental organizations and many positive outcomes result.
Right now, in this moment of extreme polarization, I think we should double down on the crossing-the-aisle strategy. Otherwise, we risk missing out on important sources of support that are likely available. For example, there are definitely many Republicans who care about nature. Who want to protect biodiversity. Who worry about their grandchildren growing up in a world bedeviled by climate change and who want to do something about it. But, many of them feel like they have been painted into an us-vs-them corner. And if we continue down this path and the elections turn out to be hugely in Republicans’ favor, what hope for progress on climate do we have then? Very little.