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Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield
You credit progressives with being much more important than they are. The people who deny climate change do it for a variety of reasons. Some for the reason you cite. Some because they work in fossil fuel industry. Some just because they're suspicious of everything.
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"Over the past two decades, Republicans have grown increasingly doubtful about climate change, even as Democrats have grown increasingly convinced that it’s happening and is caused by humans."
NYT. I'm sure there are conservative skeptics and fossil-fuel industry employees, but neither category explains the way conservatives have reacted to the mainstream (not just progressives, but the conventional understanding that climate change is a big problem and one that requires government action.
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I think they're doing it because they're in the pocket of the fossil fuel industries, and because one of Bannon's planks was dismantling of the regulatory state. This has to do with Libertarian politics more than it does with grievance.
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Sorry, that's nuts. You're not mischaracterizing libertarian views, but very few voters are libertarian.
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I don't know what definition you are using for conservatives, but it seems to be "populist." Why not just use "right wing populist"?
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Because they call themselves "conservatives."
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No you weren't. You were arguing one side is at fault for everything. You know that's not accurate. You understand the tango that brought us here. It's complex, and annoying to hear people search for something or someone to blame when confronted with a complex problem.
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No. You brought up polarization. I am describing polarization. If you buy my explanation but you are a conservative, you can blame the mainstream for driving conservatives away. Happy to talk about blame at some other point, but that's a separate conversation from what I was saying.
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Is the GOP worse on climate than the Democrats? Yes. But Republicans are embracing the urgent need to do something about climate change. The polls reflect that shift. They can be and are being brought around to it. And many have been there all along. More efforts toward expanding this emerging bipartisan consensus are useful.
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Bull. Shit. Conservatives do not embrace the urgent need to do something about climate change. Republican climate policy for the last three years has been to deny climate change, muzzle climate scientists, undo what Obama did, and de-regulate. There is *no* bipartisan consensus, in large part because conservatives are allergic to the idea of bipartisan consensus. Just for example, the Trump Administration just said it's going to roll back California's authority to promulgate higher tailpipe emissions standards, which we have had for fifty years, and opened an antitrust investigation of auto companies for agreeing to those standards. Did you see Republican politicians disagreeing with that?
All you have to look at is
the conservative reaction to Greta Thunberg, which has been deranged. She pointedly avoids specific policy prescriptions -- she just keeps saying there is a huge problem. Conservatives cannot stand it.
