If you’re thinking “huh, I guess the whole socialism, government control, government healthcare thing is not that important”, think again: the Cult of Climastrology dogma actually would require all the Big Government, authoritarian stuff that Democrats are pushing
Voters Really Care About Climate Change
For Democrats, climate change is now one of the two most important issues in politics, according to a new poll.
It’s not a fluke, an error, or an outlier. In poll after poll, the results are clear: Climate change is one of the most important issues in the 2020 presidential election.
A new survey, released today and provided exclusively to The Atlantic, only drives the point home: Climate is the clear number-two issue—second only to health care—for Democrats who live in one of the upcoming primary or caucus states. Among all voters, the warming planet is now one of the most salient issues in American politics. The poll was conducted by Climate Nexus, a nonpartisan nonprofit group, in partnership with researchers at Yale and George Mason University, and included nearly 2,000 registered voters.
Climate change now sits alongside only four other mainstays—health care, the economy and jobs, immigration policy, and Social Security—in its ability to command the electorate’s attention. And for self-described liberal Democrats, climate change is now nationally the most important issue, beating out 28 others, Anthony Leiserowitz, a senior research scientist at Yale, told me.
“This is the first time in American political history where climate change is not just a top-tier issue—it is the top-tier issue,†​said ​Leiserowitz, the director of the Yale Program on Climate-Change Communication, which helped conduct the new poll​.
Yet while Democrats have grown more alarmed by climate change, self-identified Republicans remain largely unmoved. In the poll, Democrats are much more likely than Republicans to say climate change is one of their top two issues, and they support more aggressive policies. This reflects a deepening divide among Americans: Climate change, Leiserowitz said, “has become more polarized now than any other issue, including abortion.â€
In the poll, there are all sorts of questions about enforcing 100% renewable, taxing fossil fuels companies, much stronger CAFE standards, and so forth, but, the one question they forgot to ask is how much the individual Democrat voters are willing to pay themselves. Let’s not forget this one
Though Americans are increasingly worried about climate change, fewer than 4 in 10 say they believe that tackling the problem will require them to make “major sacrifices.†And most are unwilling to pay for it out of their own pockets.
For example, while nearly half of adults say they would be willing to pay a $2 monthly tax on their electricity bills to help combat climate change, just over a quarter say they are willing to pay $10 extra each month. And while two-thirds support stricter fuel-efficiency standards for the nation’s cars and trucks, increases in the gas tax remain deeply unpopular.
Instead, clear majorities say they would prefer that climate initiatives be funded by increasing the taxes on wealthy households and on companies that burn fossil fuels.
See, they want Other People to pay for their beliefs, not themselves. Oh, and they should be asked how much liberty and freedom they are willing to give up for their beliefs. That would be a fun poll.
