re: #62 plansbandc

The GOP expresses cognitive dissonance when it comes to the parks and federal lands.

On the one hand, they and their constituents benefit from the parks and the millions of visitors they bring to those states. Those parks are a huge economic engine - bigger than if some mining company tore up lands and profited for themselves. They employ more people and protecting the environment for future use and enjoyment means those benefits persist. Once the mines are tapped out, that’s it. You’ve ruined the land and you have to deal with the pollution.

On the other, they want to sell of those lands to private companies to exploit, and which wont generate the wealth that the parks do. Their states would be poorer for it.

This is part of the sentiment behind the sovcits movement too - where they don’t believe the government can or should own that land, and that they can do what they want with it. It’s strongest in the western states, like Nevada, where the feds own more land by percentage of state land mass than elsewhere.