Changes

Environmental issues reemerged on the national agenda in 1970, with Republican [[Richard Nixon]] playing a major role, especially with his creation of the [[Environmental Protection Agency]]. The debates over the public lands and environmental politics played a supporting role in the decline of liberalism and the rise of modern conservatism. Although Americans consistently rank environmental issues as "important", polling data indicates that in the voting booth voters rank the environmental issues low relative to other political concerns.   

Environmental issues reemerged on the national agenda in 1970, with Republican [[Richard Nixon]] playing a major role, especially with his creation of the [[Environmental Protection Agency]]. The debates over the public lands and environmental politics played a supporting role in the decline of liberalism and the rise of modern conservatism. Although Americans consistently rank environmental issues as "important", polling data indicates that in the voting booth voters rank the environmental issues low relative to other political concerns.   

But is the environment a secondary issue, commanding insufficient attention from political candidates to play a major role in politics?  What cannot be ignored is the success with which the Republican party, beginning in the late 1970s, harnessed populist distrust of the federal government, the Democratic party, and the modern environmental regulatory state, and argued the alternative was the conservative agenda promoted by Republicans. In the West the most prominent organs of the federal government include the federal land agencies that oversee vast sweeps of the landscape. The growth of the Republican party's political power in the West was made possible by the rise of popular opposition to public lands reform.  Successful Democrats in the inland West and Alaska typically take more conservative positions on environmental issues than Democrats from the Coastal states.<ref>Turner (2009)</ref>

But is the environment a secondary issue, commanding insufficient attention from political candidates to play a major role in politics?  What cannot be ignored is the success with which the Republican party, beginning in the late 1970s, harnessed populist distrust of the federal government, the Democratic party, and the modern environmental regulatory state, and argued the alternative was the conservative agenda promoted by Republicans. In the West the most prominent organs of the federal government include the federal land agencies that oversee vast sweeps of the landscape. The growth of the Republican party's political power in the West was made possible by the rise of popular opposition to public lands reform.  Successful Democrats in the inland West and Alaska typically take more conservative positions on environmental issues than Democrats from the Coastal states.  Taking the conservationist position, conservatives drew on new organizational networks of think tanks, industry groups, and citizen-oriented organizations, and they began to deploy new strategies that affirmed the rights of individuals to their property, to hunt and recreate, and to pursue happiness unencumbered by the federal government.<ref>Turner (2009)</ref>

==Further reading==

==Further reading==