It’s not clear to me why the solar sector would want to put all of its eggs into one political basket. I appreciate that one party is, on its face, more likely to thump its chest about how much it loves the planet and hates nasty fossil fuels. But when you get right down to it, in my experience, the people who actually finance and build solar energy systems are much more diverse in their party affiliations.

Nowhere was this clearer to me than at the general session of the Solar Power International 2015 conference in Anaheim, Calif., this September.

Without divulging national security protocols, I will say the journalists who wanted to attend the morning’s address by Vice President Joe Biden were subject to various screenings, searchings and dog sniffings before being confined in what was perfectly termed the “press pen” in the main auditorium. The dogs should have been border collies.

This, of course, is perfectly acceptable. In addition to providing the required level of safety to the man a heartbeat away, it made us a captive audience for the panel session chaired by Julia Hamm, president and CEO of the Solar Electric Power Association. The panel of two utility executives and a top solar developer was refreshingly in accord with its message of solar progress through non-partisanship. The audience responded with some polite applause and scattered head-nodding.

Deep into his clearly well-informed and heartfelt address, the vice president - and the man is clearly aiming higher - took aim at his opponents across the aisle, designating them gravity deniers. Red meat for all; the crowd ate it up. This also, essentially, undid the measured and reasoned arguments woven during the preceding panel session.

Fair enough. There is a lot of static and smoke coming from the Red section that needs to be cut through and cleared away. At the same time, there is a lot of intelligence, attention and money in those quarters that could be persuaded into backing solar power, because it works. Talk to developers. Talk to financiers. Talk to off-takers. Talk to engineers. I do. There’s a lot of enthusiasm for solar across the spectrum.

It’s a little dismaying to see the sorts of sophistry in solar power advocacy that you see in any number of other lobbies haunting Washington, D.C. Activists tend to get carried away with the general enthusiasm. Backs get slapped. Egos get stroked. Bridges get burned. I wonder if the current crop of solar advocates are going to serve the industry so well if someone in that other party finds the phone and the pen in his or her hand.

The most frustrating part is that the argument for solar power can be made in a Socratic way. You don’t need propaganda or naked partisanship. Solar power makes sense on the merits. The calm and well-reasoned panel discussion that preceded Biden’s speech made that clear to all who were willing to listen.