Pirate's Cove

Hmm, I wonder how culty this will be?

Here’s How Democrats Should Talk About Climate Change

Democrats—who mostly aren’t talking about climate change—are continuing to debate whether they should talk about climate change.

The case against climate-centric messaging usually leans on years of fairly consistent polling. Relatively large segments of the population remain concerned about climate change but prioritize other issues at the ballot box. The point was reiterated earlier this year by the centrist Searchlight Institute, in a report urging advocates and elected officials not to focus on “climate” over more salient topics like affordability and lower energy prices: “While battleground voters overwhelmingly agree climate change is a problem, addressing it is not a priority for them.” Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego has similarly argued that talking about climate change turns voters off, so candidates are better off steering clear. “Honestly, it’s just so loaded,” he told Politico recently. “If our goal is to bring down our carbon footprint—try to restrain climate change—we need to win. And focusing on words versus outcomes, I think, is a real good pathway to losing.”

In other words, lie to voters

Political pollsters accordingly survey voters about climate change alongside a slew of other relatively discrete issues. They don’t typically ask them about capitalism, for instance, and for good reason. Capitalism isn’t a traditional political issue so much as the foundation of—conservatively speaking—most issues that voters care about, from inflation to wages to health care costs. Climate change is likewise already shaping everything from housing and insurance markets to migration. That’s because we live in a world where capitalism and climate change are now structural features of existence. In the United States, at least, discussions of structural forces as such tend to be pretty academic.

It’s instructive, actually, to compare discussions of climate change and capitalism. Putting aside any deeper connections between the two, the analogy offers a different way for politicians to treat “climate.” Socialist politicians—who are typically anti-capitalists—tend to start from first principles. They don’t ask voters to support them because they are socialists; they don’t ask them to believe in socialism or oppose capitalism. Successful socialist politicians, such as New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson, stick to issues that people in their districts care about, like making life more affordable and expanding public services. There are of course other socialists who debate whether this approach represents a betrayal of socialist values. But a key factor in the relative success of socialist politicians over the last decade has been a willingness to speak concretely and with conviction about their plans for improving the lives of ordinary people. Importantly, they also don’t shy away from the label. Mamdani ran and won with the enthusiastic backing of New York City’s chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. “I will govern as a democratic socialist,” he said proudly in his inaugural address. “Call it Pothole Politics. Call it Sewer Socialism,” he wrote this week on social media, announcing that his administration had closed an inherited $12 billion budget deficit. “It’s government that delivers for the people who make this city run.” 

Hmm, not real policy suggestions (and the massive run on paragraph was the articles), but, some good hating for capitalism and pushing Modern Socialism

To govern according to their principles, socialist electeds find common cause with non-socialists who support things like taxing the rich and bolstering collective bargaining rights. One needn’t identify as a socialist to support the things that socialists do. Figures across the political spectrum frequently voice their disagreements with the worst excesses of capitalism, like extreme wealth inequality, wage theft, and insider trading.

Hmm, so, the same old same old. How does taxing the rich and “bolstering collective bargaining rights” do anything to solve the mythical climate crisis? When the doomsday climate cultists tell you who they are you need to listen. This post using this article is possibly one of the most perfect uses of the Go Green graphic.