Congress' Dirty Water Caucus: How do we combat stupid?

by Jonathan A. Scott, on Twitter @jscottnh Following Tuesday's US House vote to pass the ROPA Dirty Water bill (HR 5078, approved 262-152) we published this infographic on Clean Water Action's Twitter and Facebook accounts:

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We also published a link to information on how individual House Members voted (https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/113-2014/h489) One concerned/angry Clean Water Action supporter on Facebook commented, "How do we combat stupid." Here's how we responded:

It has long been the case that many Members of Congress need to be dragged kicking and screaming to do the right thing.

One of the best ways of expressing support or displeasure is coming up in a few weeks, the 2014 elections (November 4, 2014).

Loss of job or threat thereof is something that can cause even the dimmest bulb to light up with understanding.

This does not mean we think most of our Dirty Water opponents are stupid. On the contrary, these latest assaults on clean water are the fruits of a deliberate strategy orchestrated by some of the nation's largest, wealthiest, best-connected polluters working in concert with extreme ideologues whose agenda is anti-government as well as anti-environment. In addition voting this November 4 as if clean water issues matter -- because they obviously do -- the other part of the answer can be found in the above bar graph. Yes, our opponents have a lot of money to throw behind their Dirty Water attacks, but we have them on the numbers: 262 (plus a few dozen big polluter lobby groups) vs more than 117 million Americans. Close to 750,000 people have already weighed in to support EPA's proposal for fixing the Clean Water Act -- more than any other clean water issue so far. We still have until mid-October to increase those numbers. You can add your voice for clean water here: www.ProtectCleanWater.org