According to a new poll, 83% of Americans believe the planet is warming and 71% believe it is caused by humans. (That other 27% are running on faith alone...there is no peer-reviewed science of any kind that supports the natural cycle idea.)
But the current crop of Presidential hopefuls are all on the "global warming is crap" bandwagon. Which sucks for them, because most people do not agree with them.
This is the part that made me very happy...
The campaigns will likely look at the poll and ask, "How did this happen?" The answer may be found in the Republican campaign strategy book. The poll seems to show that the recent campaign appearances and debates staged by the field of Republican candidates has focused Americans on the concern about global warming. The more the candidates talk about the "unsettled" nature of the science, the more the public has become interested in trying to figure out what the science actually says. Playing down global warming, the poll indicates, has had the opposite effect on voters. The law of unintended consequences has turned on the candidates who deny the science, and bitten them on the backsides.
Politicians are so willing to take a stand and start screaming about anything they think will get them elected, and over and over again our country suffers because of it. Immigration, terrorism, personal freedoms and rights versus safety and security. So for a group of pols to get bitten in the ass by their own game, awesome.
While I find it impossible to believe that the politicians will learn from this, it is heartening to think that Americans might actually be thinking for themselves instead of blindly believing what politicians are spewing.
If (and I do mean IF) the Republicans EVER manage to get control of their Party back from the Right-Wing Christians who now seem to dominate their leadership, maybe, just maybe, they'll get back to sending representatives to Washington who can actually think.
ReplyDeleteNot that there's anything wrong with being a Christian - or right-Wing, for that matter - but religion was never supposed to be part of Political thinking in this country - at least, it wasn't supposed to dominate.
ReplyDeleteWhat I have been thinking lately is that "Christian" is not a really good descriptor. Right-wing Christianity has huge fundamental differences in beliefs and morality and morals and principles from my own Lutheran ones, but "Christian" has become shorthand for the right wing fundamental variety.
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