Pittsburgh not Paris

Pittsburgh, not Paris

Since I live in the Pittsburgh, PA area, I found it was quite intriguing that President Trump mentioned Pittsburgh when he announced his decision to pull the USA out of the Paris Climate Accord on June 1, 2017. He stated, “I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris” (Statement by President Trump on the Paris Climate Accord).

The Reaction in Pittsburgh

You would think Pittsburghers, and especially the mayor Bill Peduto, would have been thrilled to hear Pittsburgh mentioned by the President. However, Pittsburgh proper is very Democratic and liberal, so much so, that the Democratic primary for mayor is the election. By that I mean, there is so little chance a Republican would win that Republicans don’t even bother to run a candidate.

With that background, Mayor Peduto came out immediately after Trump's statement and said that Trump did not understand Pittsburgh. There has since been a couple of rallies in Pittsburgh against Trump, with people holding signs reading, “Paris not Trump.” Governmental buildings have even been lit up green in support of the Paris Climate Accord. Peduto has declared Trump is perpetrating the myth that Pittsburgh is still the “Smokey City” dependent on its pollution-spewing steel industry, when in fact Pittsburgh is now a high-tech center, with just about the cleanest air of any major city.

But personally, I think it is Peduto who does not understand Trump’s point, as Pittsburgh was the perfect city to mention. Pittsburgh stands as a shining example of how a city can clean up its pollution mess without destroying its economy. And we did not need an international agreement to do so, just old-fashioned American and Pittsburgh hard work and ingenuity.

Moreover, Peduto was being disingenuous in his speeches when he insinuated that all Pittsburghers agreed with him in his stand against Trump. Yes, Allegheny County in which Pittsburgh is located did go for Hillary not Trump in the 2016 election, but Hillary only won 56% of the vote. In other places, 56% might be a large margin, but in Allegheny County where the vast majority are registered Democrat, it was actually a lackluster performance. That is why Trump won Pennsylvania.

To explain, the situation in PA is Allegheny County in the southwest and Philadelphia County in the southeast are largely Democratic and liberal, but the rest of the counties constituting the “T” in-between are strongly conservative and Republican. However, Allegheny and Philadelphia counties have by far the largest populations. As such, for a Democrat to win a state-wide election, he or she needs to win by a wide margin in those two counties to overcome the deficit that will be incurred in the rest of the predominately Republican counties. But Hillary did not win Allegheny county by a sufficient margin to overcome that deficit.

Moreover, those of us who live in Allegheny County but outside of the Pittsburgh city limits are largely conservative, just like the rest of the metro Pittsburgh area is, which Trump won handily (Donald Trump actually did carry (metro) Pittsburgh). That means, Peduto does not represent me nor many other residents of the wider Pittsburgh area. As such, I would prefer he speak for himself and not presume to speak for all of us who consider ourselves Pittsburghers.

Accord or Treaty?

What I find most interesting about the protests in Pittsburgh and in 150 cities in the country over the June 3-4 weekend is I bet the vast majority of those protesting against Trump taking the USA out of the Paris Climate Accord have never actually read the Paris Climate Accord. How can you protest for or against something when you don’t know what it contains?

I myself have not read it either. Therefore, I will not take a position as to what effect the Accord would have had and whether it was proper on that basis for Trump to pull the USA out of the Accord. But what I do know is President Obama called this an “accord” rather than a “treaty” to avoid the Constitutions’ requirement that a treaty be approved by the Senate.

However, it is a treaty, as a treaty is, “a formally concluded and ratified agreement between countries” (Oxford Dictionary on MS Word 365). That is what this Accord is. As such, it should have been ratified by the Senate before the USA could have entered into it. As the Constitution mandates, “The President … shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur” (The Constitution of the United States. Article II. Section 2, quoted from: The United States Constitution: with Amendments. pp. 13-14. Wohnrecht. Kindle Edition).

The point is, the USA is a Constitutional Republic not a Democracy. In a true Democracy, every citizen votes on every issue. But most people do not have the time to investigate every issue to make an informed vote on it, and that is the case here. Again, the vast majority of the protestors have not read the Accord, so their protests are based on ignorance. But the point of the USA being a Republic is we the citizens vote for representatives. Then those representatives are supposed to take the time to become informed on each issue and then vote on it for us.

In this case, Obama should have taken the Accord to the Senate. The Senators should have then taken the time to read the Accord and make an informed vote as to whether the USA should enter into it or not. Since that was not done, then yes, on that basis, Trump was perfectly correct to take the USA out of it. Although, Trump could have saved himself the backlash and simply declared that the Accord is a treaty (which again, it is) and punted the decision to the Senate and let them get the backlash. However, the Constitution does give the power of making treaties to both the President and the Senate, meaning both must concur for a treaty to be binding, but if just one opposes, then it is not binding. Therefore, Trump was within his rights to remove the USA from it.

Conclusion

The USA does not need to be in an unconstitutional international agreement to cut back on greenhouse emissions. In fact, such an agreement would hinder us from doing what is best for us, both in regards to the environment and our economy. That is why Trump pulled us out of the Accord. The protestors need to just take a chill pill and realize that like Pittsburgh, we can both preserve the planet and have a robust economy. And that is what I expect will be happen, if the protestors would just get out of the way and let President Trump do the job we elected him to do.

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The above article was posted on this website June 5, 2017.

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