Remember, Republicans used to believe in protecting the environment

It might be hard to believe, considering all we hear from our "conservative" friends today about climate change being a hoax, but Republicans used to favor protecting the environment.

You may know that back in 1970 it was President Richard Nixon (R) who signed an executive order establishing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

A short time later, the EPA hired freelance photojournalists across the country to document the outdoors and the environmental problems we faced.

According to Fortune:

"It focused on 'environmental concerns of the early 1970s: water, air, and noise pollution; unchecked urbanization; poverty; environmental impact on public health; and youth culture of the day.'"

Here's a sampling of the photos captured by the EPA crew:

I remember my first trip to Southern California.

It was in the early 1990s and one of the most memorable images stored in my brain is the layer of smog hanging over Los Angeles like a storm cloud.

California is one of the most progressive states in the union, especially when it comes to the environment. You can see the results of that aggressive approach to clean air in the picture above.

The Republican support for clean air and water has waned since the ink dried on Nixon's executive order.

Today's EPA is a shell of itself and its mission seems to be contradictory. Instead of minimizing the damage we're doing to the environment, which affects the air we breathe and the water we drink, it seems Donald Trump's EPA believes companies will police themselves when it comes to waste and toxic fumes.

It's almost as if they didn't live through the 1960s and 1970s when our air was unbreathable and our rivers caught on fire.

I'm not surprised, considering the majority of conspiracy theorists typically vote Republican. The climate change deniers also typically get their news from InfoWars, Breitbart and Fox News. Our president himself is a climate change denier who also believes the moon landing was staged in a Hollywood studio. 

Apparently, leading us back to the times of polluted air and water is Making America Great Again.