A major new L.A. Times/Bloomberg poll addressing global warming and other environmental concerns brings more bad news for Republicans. The poll, conducted 7/28 to 8/1 in the midst of a nation-wide heat wave, indicates that Dems have a strong advantage on the entire range of environmental issues. For example, when asked which party “does a better job in Congress when it comes to handling environmental issues, the Democrats of Republicans?,” 50 percent favored Dems, with only 22 percent chosing the GOP. The poll also showed heightened concerns about global warming, with 73 percent of respondents agreeing that is is “a serious problem,” compared to two-thirds back in 2001. The poll addressed a broad range of major environmental issues, and none of the statistics favor the GOP. The issue is a huge winner for Dems.
2 comments on “Rising Environmental Concerns Boost Dems”
Susan Hagius on
If there is any one issue that could bring the center of the nation into the Dem fold, it is the environment. NOBODY wants to swelter, drown, get buried in snow, or do without water. Even the wealthiest corporate supporters of relaxing environmental controls are made up of individuals who don’t want to suffer the future that is predicted. It ought to be enough that protecting the environment is the right thing to do. But if not, then Democrats should do it out of pure self-interest.
The question is; what will the Dems do with us? As to be expected given the current state of world affairs, the environment doesn’t appear to be high on the Dems agenda. That’s unfortunate because raising the profile of environmental issues and articulating them in a manner that resonates with other memes (culture of corruption, do-nothing-Congress, core values, national security/energy dependence, new industries/technoligies & jobs, and health care)to paint a much broader picture of the need for change could be a winning strategy. Simply adding the environment as an item on a checklist and giving it lip-service with a single sentence isn’t going to be effective.
This year’s big media narrative has been the confirmation saga of Neera Tanden, Biden’s nominee for director of the Office of Management and Budget. At New York I wrote about how over-heated the talk surrounding Tanden has become.
Okay, folks, this is getting ridiculous. When a vote in the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on the nomination of Neera Tanden was postponed earlier this week, you would have thought it presented an existential threat to the Biden presidency. “Scrutiny over Tanden’s selection has continued to build as the story over her uneven reception on Capitol Hill stretched through the week,” said one Washington Post story. Politico Playbook suggested that if Tanden didn’t recover, the brouhaha “has the potential to be what Biden might call a BFD.” There’sbeen all sorts of unintentionally funny speculation about whether the White House is playing some sort of “three-dimensional chess” in its handling of the confirmation, disguising a nefarious plan B or C.
Perhaps it reflects the law of supply and demand, which requires the inflation of any bit of trouble for Biden into a crisis. After all, his Cabinet nominees have been approved by the Senate with a minimum of 56 votes; the second-lowest level of support was 64 votes. One nominee who was the subject of all sorts of initial shrieking, Tom Vilsack, was confirmed with 92 Senate votes. Meanwhile, Congress is on track to approve the largest package of legislation moved by any president since at least the Reagan budget of 1981, with a lot of the work on it being conducted quietly in both chambers. Maybe if the bill hits some sort of roadblock, or if Republican fury at HHS nominee Xavier Becerra (whose confirmation has predictably become the big fundraising and mobilization vehicle for the GOP’s very loud anti-abortion constituency) reaches a certain decibel level, Tanden can get out of the spotlight for a bit.
But what’s really unfair — and beyond that, surreal — is the extent to which this confirmation is being treated as more important than all the others combined, or indeed, as a make-or-break moment for a presidency that has barely begun. It’s not. If Tanden cannot get confirmed, the Biden administration won’t miss a beat, and I am reasonably sure she will still have a distinguished future in public affairs (though perhaps one without much of a social-media presence). And if she is confirmed, we’ll all forget about the brouhaha and begin focusing on how she does the job, which she is, by all accounts, qualified to perform.
If there is any one issue that could bring the center of the nation into the Dem fold, it is the environment. NOBODY wants to swelter, drown, get buried in snow, or do without water. Even the wealthiest corporate supporters of relaxing environmental controls are made up of individuals who don’t want to suffer the future that is predicted. It ought to be enough that protecting the environment is the right thing to do. But if not, then Democrats should do it out of pure self-interest.
The question is; what will the Dems do with us? As to be expected given the current state of world affairs, the environment doesn’t appear to be high on the Dems agenda. That’s unfortunate because raising the profile of environmental issues and articulating them in a manner that resonates with other memes (culture of corruption, do-nothing-Congress, core values, national security/energy dependence, new industries/technoligies & jobs, and health care)to paint a much broader picture of the need for change could be a winning strategy. Simply adding the environment as an item on a checklist and giving it lip-service with a single sentence isn’t going to be effective.