Brian J. Back

Sustainable Industries has worked hard over the years to be painfully bipartisan, and to not mix overt political bias into our editorial product, including our own opinion pieces. Further, as recently as a few years ago, sustainable business or anything “green” was prone to attacks, regarded as “liberal” hoo-ha laced with tax hikes and tall lattés.

Fortunately times have changed, and fast. One of the biggest issues surrounding the 2008 presidential campaign, for instance, is the promise of revolutionary energy independence. Although there are important differences between the two parties on timelines and exactly how to get there, both candidates acknowledge that a portfolio of clean, renewable energy sources is an essential part of achieving independence.

(Gov. Palin is the only one I’ve heard say “renewables aren’t ready yet,” but then she also denies global warming is caused by humans. …It’s no coincidence she’s not allowing any press interviews before the election.)

This magazine has graduated from the age in which it was birthed, a post-9/11 era in which many U.S. media were cowed into believing they were too progressively informed to be patriotic, and thus did much to overcompensate for that. Democrats did the same, and their inauthentic pandering has in my opinion been part of their recipe for loss.

Personally I am an Independent, and my biggest wish for America is a day when we can be liberated from our two-party lock on democracy (and with candidates who aren’t kooks). Nonetheless, Sustainable Industries, also independent in the media world, is in the minority among our peers in taking the political stance we’re taking today: an unabashed endorsement of Barack Obama for President.

It’s not only because, like many Americans, we’ve had our fill of the same unapologetic lies and tired politics of hate that have been present for eight years, and even still at the recent Republican National Convention. It’s not only to make a statement against the orchestrated campaign of misinformation that led us into the war in Iraq, squandered relations with countless global allies, and racked up economic liabilities our children will have to pay for. It’s not only because Obama can help stymie our nation’s rising anti-intellectualism movement.
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