Liberals, conservatives, Patio Man and the environment

(previous "liberals & conservatives" posts here and here)

the pieces:

• David Brooks in the Weekly Standard last August on [stereo]typical Republican-voting denizens of suburbia in the southwest, Patio Man and the Sprawl People (long but well written)
  
• April 13 Sac Bee, Patio Man gets religion about about taming sprawl and is voting with the liberals on this issue
  
• Thought-provoking letter in response in Bee yesterday by Hugh Bower of Sac:

  Let's be honest: The "environmentalists" in "sprinkler cities" -- Elk Grove, Folsom and El Dorado Hills -- are nothing more than NIMBYs.
  
  A true environmentalist is just as concerned about drilling for oil in Alaska (even if he or she never sees it) as he or she is about oak trees around Folsom Lake. Unfortunately, "sprawl people" are only concerned about protecting their immediate environment...

  
  which sounds pretty damning.
  
  
• But now add Melanie Phillips as follows:

  Values dismissed as conservative are actually universal: attachment, commitment to individuals and institutions, ties of duty, trust and fidelity...

and we get two ways to view the Republican anti-sprawlers' motivations:
either they're selfish ("they were there first and don't want uninvited intruders crowding their roadways, schools and neighborhoods") or they're exemplifying conservative values, by being loyal and dutiful and true and committed to their communities. And if these are bad things, does that mean that conservatism is bad?

This also points out the differences in "boundaries" between liberals and conservatives. The "true environmentalist" aka liberal? has no boundaries, is concerned all over the planet, thus goes around engaged in pesky do-gooding. But conversely, because they don't have boundaries "everything is sacred" (or at theoretically equally important whether within view or not), and so there's no Loyalty (because loyalty is about treating those people/things you're close to differently from those that you're not)


(Aside: NIMBY definition from SARS watch recently: "the inevitable reluctance of anyone to accept a point source of social problems near them")