Obama turns Democratic Party into an antiquity

At his final press conference back on Dec. 16, President Obama said that he intends to focus on building the Democratic Party when he leaves office. As he leaves office, though, Mr. Obama continues to make it clear that he intends to focus on building the Democratic Party that fits his ideology, not a Democratic Party that listens to the people and advances the pragmatic priorities we can all support.

After sweeping victories in 2006 and 2008, Democrats have suffered defeat after defeat in elections at all levels. And through it all, President Obama has continued to push members of his own party to support policies far more liberal than the voters that elected him.

{mosads}Now, during his lame duck period, the President has taken yet another parting shot at moderate Democrats, further weakening what’s left of the party.  This time, it’s the proponents of multiple land use – ranchers, sportsmen, conservationists and more – who will suffer.

The west abounds with awe-inspiring scenes of beauty. We have mountains, canyons, and rivers. And the majesty of our country has led many presidents to designate many parts of it as “special.” Unfortunately, these designations are blunt instruments. When land is designated as a national monument, new regulations greatly limit multiple uses – including livestock grazing – or create restrictions on access and maintenance.

These restrictions are often so costly that ranchers can no longer afford to use their public land allotments. When ranchers lose their allotments, the local economy suffers – incomes plummet, businesses close and schools shutter. Restrictions on grazing also inevitably harm ecosystems because we do not have a good alternative for preventing the overgrowth of unpalatable and highly flammable vegetation.

In my home state of Utah, where my family has been ranching since 1946, the federal government owns about two-thirds of the land. President Obama’s unilateral decision to designate a 1.35 million-acre national monument at Bears Ears is controversial because it doesn’t have any local support. Our governor opposes it. Our senators oppose it. Our representatives have been working for years to develop a plan that would protect the land while allowing some use by those of us who rely on it for our survival.

This isn’t the first time a national monument has been declared in the Beehive State. In 1996, President Clinton designated the 1.9-million acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, and the impact has been immense. Four grazing allotments – multigenerational family businesses – have closed entirely, and four more have grown much smaller. Middle and high school enrollment in local areas has dropped precipitously, and school districts have closed. And by 2011 – just 15 years later, the per-capita income in counties affected by the designation was $2,000 lower than comparable, unaffected counties.

All told, President Obama has invoked executive power to create national monuments 29 times during his tenure, establishing or expanding protections for more than 553 million acres of federal lands and waters. That’s nearly three times the acreage added by any other president.

This is a clear abuse of the power created under the 1906 Antiquities Act, which gives the president power to designate national monuments without approval from Congress. It’s hurting ranchers, who rely on access to federal lands to graze the animals that feed our people, and it’s hurting the few elected Democrats in the West who have managed to survive by putting them in increasingly untenable political situations.

The modern Democratic Party has found success when it has brought together diverse interests and diverse people to advance important causes. But in recent years, it has been overrun by a president who sees more value in ideological purity than in pragmatism and compromise.

As a party, Democrats have paid for this dearly. They lost voters like me – I changed my registration just this year. They lost the White House. They lost the Congress. They lost control of legislatures and governorships around the nation. If President Obama truly wants to rebuild the Democratic Party after leaving the White House, maybe he should stop pushing so many of us out of the big tent.

Sacco is the public lands director for Carbon County, Utah and the incoming Federal Lands Policy Chair for the National Cattleman’s Beef Association. 

The views expressed by authors are their own and not the views of The Hill.