The 2016 presidential race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump has become a substance-free fight between “two teenagers” who don’t like each other, according to environmentalist Erin Brockovich, who told CNN that she has not decided whether she will be casting a ballot November 8.
“I don’t know what we’re resolving. There’s a lot of name-calling and accusations and innuendos,” Brockovich said. “We’re watching a campaign and I feel like I’m watching some reality show of two teenagers in high school who don’t get along.”
The famed consumer advocate and environmental activist lamented the state of American politics and called out the Republican and the Democratic parties for failing to recognize that “we have a national water crisis.”
Including the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, Brockovich cited 18 states that are dealing with water contamination with substances like lead and hexavalent chromium, and said that politicians have failed to recognize that clean water is “a national security issue.”
Brockovich began her work on ground water issues and contamination in 1992 in Hinckley, California, and became a household name in 2000 when Julia Roberts portrayed her in the Oscar-winning film, “Erin Brockovich,” which chronicles her lawsuit against the Pacific Gas and Electric Company.
Brockovich won the lawsuit against PG&E but said that she soon learned that this case was not a “one-off situation.”
“The issues that we’re having with water are worse and the magnitude is bigger than anything I imagined possible,” Brockovich said, adding that over the years, “the situation has not gotten better.”
Brockovich grew up in a staunchly Republican family in Kansas but has been living in the blue state of California for decades. She said that she has never associated with a particular party.
She said that too often, officials “politicize water” and “nobody will meet each other in the middle.”
“I’d like to find and vote for a candidate, whether Republican or Democrat … that has the best interest in the health and welfare of everybody in this country,” Brockovich said.
