Unstoppable

The Power of Coalitions

The Clinch River Breeder Reactor in Tennessee provides an excellent example of the power of strange political bedfellows – environmentalists and conservatives – working together. This unlikely coalition derailed a huge nuclear project that enjoyed the backing of White House appointees during the Nixon and Reagan administrations, as well as of industry lobbyists. Government secrecy protected the breeder reactor project, which seemed unstoppable until then governor Dale Bumpers of Arkansas encouraged conservatives and environmentalists to unite to form a coalition and oppose the project, based on cost overruns and its creation of lethal plutonium. The coalition prevailed in October 1983, when the Senate closed down the project despite lobbying by industry proponents and Tennessee Senator Howard Baker.

A similar coalition gained victory with the 1986 False Claims Amendment Act, which protects whistle-blowers who inform authorities about federal fraud and waste. Such coalitions of politically opposite parties can work on other issues, including drug decriminalization, corporate subsidies, intrusions at airport security stations and the public...