And all because of DICs
When it comes to messaging, the right wing media machine has perfected the ability to turn molehills into mountain. Progressives, on the other hand, have perfected the art of turning mountains into molehills.
So Joe’s admitting he’s a hardcore progressive with an agenda?
Nowhere is that clearer than in the cases of clean energy and climate change (and more broadly, clean air and clean water).  From the perspective of polling and public opinion, they are all issues that are very popular across the political spectrum (other than Tea Party extremists), including independents. That is, they are among the best wedge issues progressives have (see here and here).
But thanks to the steadfast rhetorical brilliance of the denier industrial complex (DIC) — aka repeating lies and half-truths endlessly — and the general fecklessness of President Obama and other key Democratic politicians, many progressives are actually convinced that climate change is a losing message and are even on the defensive on slam dunk issues like clean energy and clean air/water.
There’s no better way to get people to listen to you than by calling them DICs. And whine and whine and whine.
Look, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: there is nothing wrong with clean energy, water, air, keeping the environment as pristine as possible. 99.99% on the Right will agree with me. However, they are good for their own reasons, not because of the climate change hoax. And the Warmists have taken every real environmental and energy issue and folded them under the banner of their pet pseudo-religion. We need solar energy not because it can eventually be cheap and it’s more abundant, and the world needs more power as it expands; no, we need it because trace amounts of a gas necessary for life will cause the Earth to burn to a cinder, at least in Warmist World. People have to be forced to by non-incandescent light bulbs to save the coral from global warming!!!!!!! Dying coral couldn’t possibly have anything to do with actual pollutants in our waters.
The Warmists continually over-reach, and turn issues that most of us can agree on into unhinged and far left issues. It starts out as “well, America needs more energy. Let’s consider doing some research into creating more viable alternatives.” Then the Warmists latch on to the issue and say “if we don’t do away with oil and coal and use green energy RIGHT NOW, we’ll all die!!!! And everyone else needs to give up their car and use CFLs (not me, I have to get to work and CFL light stinks). We must save Gaia from Mankind’s greenhouse gas folly!!!!!” Are you going to listen to the latter, or think the person is mentally deranged? And let’s not forget that many of the climate weenies will then block the actual building/implementation of many “green” energy projects.
BTW, Mother Jones also admits that the “deniers” have won.
Notice the very suttle morph from climate change to clean air and water. That is a major statement. It means they are changing tactics.
Tactics are a changing, and it may be a loser for them. Because conservatives LOVE air and water, in fact they need it to live.
I’m not sure what libs “need” to live, except that it will necessarily involve government and tax dollars.
Back to clean air and water, conservatives have always promoted these two things, but within reason and with steps that wouldn’t kill businesses altogether, but instead allow them to clean their pollution up gradually. I believe that most businesses have done a great job of it, and would argue that those who have not cleaned up their problems with pollution by now, ought to now be fined and or closed. There is no excuse to be fouling our water or air, when there are new and cheaper ways to resolve it. My hubby worked at a refinery for 33 years, and was a part of the renovating work they were forced to do to please the EPA. Every time they implemented new equipment they were asked to do more. Unfortunately, the small refinery he worked for is shutting its’ doors because it can’t keep up with the ever changing EPA standards…and still turn a profit. Those evil oil companies. Oh, and they will be laying off about 3,000. people in the Phila area.
And finally, Carbon/CO2 emissions here or elsewhere are not the issue with clean air and water – though I am pretty sure it’s where they’ll take this.
True, they love trying to try different tactics, but, they always seem to bomb. Biodiversity, extreme weather, and so many others, which are beat down by facts and history
Sorry to hear that Trish. Add to that power plants, and now it would seem lumber yards may be seeing harder times due to union pressures.
This economy is continuing to suffer and die under the “tactics” of the ever increasing anti-America, anti-capitalism, anti-job liberal agenda that has its roots in Communism.
Never be sorry for earning a living and working hard. Never apologize for utilizing earth’s resources. God put them here for a reason.
What is pissing me off the most Trish\Teach…. is that our Tea Party revolution has not seem to have done much since last november. I have only heard of a few bills that have come to the floor and many of those have died.
And we are still “discussing” an increasing budget. And no one has taken the Senate Dems to court for failure to pass a budget since 2009. Didn’t a balanced budget amendment fail in the House recently? If repubs hold power, then why? Why did the light bulb freedom act fail? Why havent we opened up ANWR and coastal drilling? Why havent we opened up our vast coal and coalshale reserves?
We are allowing China and unfriendly S. American countries to make gobs of money out of our Gulf of Mexico… but not us.
Yeah Captain, the Tea Parties around here (3 of them) are concentrating on our State legislature; trying to keep their feet to the fire regarding state issues, which is all good. But they need to put the same pressure on our federal reps, or we will lose any ground we may have made. Why did the lightbulb act fail? Why are we letting other countries drill everywhere around us, while we sit on our thumbs? The drilling issue is crucial to our future. We could in fact put so many people to work- immediately, and then long term good paying jobs. And building or retrofitting existing refineries that would then need employees. Long term is a notion that demorats seem to miss- they prefer stimulus type, temporary jobs. Or more importantly, they want unions to hire people ie to build a bridge, and then keep them on the payroll long after the bridge is built. Using tax dollars of course. Unsustainable non-profitable jobs. Of course we need roads and we need bridges; but we need a thriving economy that can support those two needs. Why don’t liberals see that logic?
There’s that scary word again… ‘logic’. Teach has been training me to not use that word around here. And, I’ve learned that if I use it too much as a means of argument against a liberal, it makes my head hurt. Not in the logic or arguing aspect, but that it feels like my head just entered another dimension where the discussion of the fact that logic might actually occur in this reality is what brings on the pain. And, then there are some people, would seem to be quite a few of us on this blog (no thanks to Teach and his IAYS posts), that actually thrive and relish a logical existence.
Go figure.