David Jenkins
David is the President of Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship, a national nonprofit grassroots organization founded on the premise that environmental stewardship and natural resource conservation are inherently conservative, and that true conservatives endeavour to be good stewards of the natural systems and resources that sustain life on earth.
CRS holds that safeguarding our air and water, our public lands, our wetlands, and wildlife is, as Ronald Reagan accurately pointed out, ‘our great moral responsibility.’ And that when conservatives fail to engage and take this obligation seriously, the solutions proposed come entirely from the left.
He has worked for CRS, or its predecessor organization REP America (REP), since 2005. For much of that time he served as Vice President for Government & Political Affairs for REP, and has been instrumental in numerous organizational and legislative accomplishments. David has written and spoken extensively about many of today’s most pressing environmental issues, conservatism, our nation’s conservation heritage and American politics; his writing has appeared in dozens of newspapers and other publications.
Prior to CRS and REP, David was the American Canoe Association’s Director of Conservation and Public Policy for 10 years, and before that was on the legislative staff for Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM). He holds a B.A. in Political Science from Furman University.
856: David Jenkins, President of Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship
Most environmentalists that I know of consider themselves progressive or liberal. They propose solutions that increase regulation and grow government, often in the style of the New Deal. Their role models are generally also progressive and liberal. They present conservatives as opponents, even enemies, sometimes evil. They consider them interested in themselves and profit, not caring who suffers for it.
Over and over, they say about conservatives, “They don’t care.” Meanwhile, they pollute as much as anyone. They fund future extraction, companies that extract and pollute, their politicians, and lobbyists promoting more.
I don’t think they actually talk to conservatives. They project their preconceptions onto them and treat them as straw men.
David Jenkins helps lead a conservative group that promotes stewardship. I suspect many environmentalists would consider the combination impossible, wondering if it’s a front group.
What do you expect? Could conservative values promote decreasing pollution, depletion, plunder, and misappropriating nature?
Listen and find out.