US Conservatives are gearing up to provide their best to gear up for battle against climate catastrophe - that is, the catastrophe of anyone doing fuck all about it. Their nearly 1000 page plan is a complete shift from the federal government regulating polluters and encouraging clean energy to capitulating to polluters and doing nothing to encourage development of clean energy. In this respect they are even behind many big energy companies mainly known for fossil fuel, who are changing their portfolios to include clean energies.
Not only does their numbskull plan retreat from action at the federal level, but it also attempts to stop states from making progress on their own. On the longer political scale, this further separates Republicans from young people. Even young conservatives tend to acknowledge anthropomorphic climate change. Republicans will not easily be forgiven for sabotaging climate action as forests burn, rivers run dry, hurricanes become more frequent, glaciers retreat, and the world swelters under an increase in heat waves.
They’re just trying to live up to what Chomsky called them: “the most dangerous organization on Earth.”
And this time around, they’re trying to be more organized in smashing things. Trump term 1 was disorganized. By all accounts, Trump himself was pretty surprised at having won. Now the party has been largely purified and they’re lining up Trump sycophants at the pig trough for jobs to carry out P. J. O’Rourke’s summary of Republicans: “The Republicans are the party that says government doesn’t work and then they get elected and prove it.”
relevant video: The Alt-Right Playbook: The Slow Breakup (it’s new!)
Thanks
As part of that effort, one idea is to offer incentives for the public “to identify scientific flaws and research misconduct,” which might encourage opponents of regulations to target research.
Republicans are so good at accepting objective truth, and making unemotional decisions that are based solely on reason. What could possibly go wrong?
Sounds like they’re taking inspiration from Texas. Specifically, the law that rewards people for snitching on their neighbors who are suspected of getting an “illegal” abortion.
I was naive for being even cautiously optimistic at the headline
Same. :(
The thing is, there are definitely conservatives out there who aren’t denialist. You know, the “free market” faithful who don’t want the government to lift a finger because the magic free markets will fix everything… somehow. But those people just don’t have much political power in the modern Republican party. Denialism is the name of the game.
