dagblog - Comments for "What the Primary Elections Mean for the Environment"

That is good to hear, I hope

Jamie Friedland — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 13:55:56 +0000

In reply to This is a good place to make

That is good to hear, I hope that's happening elsewhere too.

This is a good place to make

trkingmomoe — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 07:23:22 +0000

In reply to What the Primary Elections Mean for the Environment

This is a good place to make this interesting note:

I belong to a group of quilters in Florida and these ladies are not very political by nature. Most of them through the years have been loyal republicans. Normally they don't pay any attention to the elections until a week or so before it is time to vote. The only exception was the 2008 election and this week with the primary win in Delaware has gotten their attention early. They are rethinking if they should support the republicans. It is starting to sink in that the crazy far right is taking over the party. Normally they don't talk religion or politics but one brought it up because she can't talk about it with her hard headed husband. The rest of the evening this topic was covered and what would happen if the crazies end up in office. If this conversation is going on in this group of women then it maybe going on with other groups of freinds.

A very valid point. I hadn't

Jamie Friedland — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 20:38:43 +0000

In reply to I think you are reading it

A very valid point. I hadn't considered that effect. Maybe polling and election data will be detailed enough to give us more insight into this nascent phenomenon come November.

Side note: it's good to see you here!

beyond that, i'm as

anna am — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 19:39:25 +0000

In reply to nice to see you too obey.

beyond that, i'm as frustrated as you are with what is flashing for the public.

I think you are reading it

kgb999 — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 19:28:12 +0000

In reply to What the Primary Elections Mean for the Environment

I think you are reading it wrong. The negative impact of "Palinization" (for the GOP) as you describe it here isn't really in galvanization of the opposition (in fact, it doesn't seem to be impacting Dem enthusiasm much at all). What candidates of this nature really seem to be doing is chasing away otherwise loyal members of their own party as well as turning off independents who don't view themselves as "opposition" to either party.

It seems like the current competition between the parties seems to be which side can come up with a more outrageous thing to do that will turn off voters.

I remember reading some where

Beetlejuice — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 18:21:23 +0000

In reply to Thanks Beetlejuice. And I

I remember reading some where it did happen in the late 19th century and only for an election cycle and a half or so, but grass-roots politics proved to be too whimsical for serious discussion or debate back then and the movement died out. I suspect the same thing will happen with the tea-baggers, except there's more to lose today than there was in the late 19th century.

Godwin's law applies to

Beetlejuice — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 18:15:14 +0000

In reply to Must … resist … fulfilling …

Godwin's law applies to adults. We're discussing children. You know when a bunch of children get too rough and break a toy they're playing with, they look for an adult to put it back together again so they can go back and abuse it again.

nice to see you too obey.

anna am — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 17:10:35 +0000

In reply to Hi Anna! Nice to see you over

nice to see you too obey. i'm assuming they still have in mind things like a better grid, local produce inititiatives, more creative thinking like in the retrofit incentives, continued tightening of efficiency standards for cars and trucks as well as domestic appliances. Would also like to more stuff like the Land Management Act and a real lookie see into mountaintop mining, not just a paper on it.

And so on.

Would of course love to see them bring cap and trade back from the dead (though it could be argued that the $65 billion transfer to RGGI is kinda sorta cap and trade on the sly), and i'd love to see Obama champion a Copenhagen redo -- and those would fit on a flashcards. But i don't anticipate stuff that's quite so grand. Or not till he's into a second term.

so, while i do at least partially mean what you take me to mean, i also mean none of the little steps i think they can and will continue making can effectively call out hey wow look at this! and threading them together, well, it doesn't quite make a flashcard. then about policy, well, i think they have to regroup and figure out what's doable -- and what won't wind them up with yet more egg on their faces.

Must … resist … fulfilling …

Atheist — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 16:45:56 +0000

In reply to Thanks Beetlejuice. And I

Must … resist … fulfilling … Godwin's law.

A true worst-case scenario is that after the authoritans get elected into office, they change the government into a true authoritarian regime. It's happened before, but I'll leave the specifics as an exercise for the reader.

Thanks Beetlejuice. And I

Jamie Friedland — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 16:08:53 +0000

In reply to Jamie, I took the time to

Thanks Beetlejuice. And I agree. I would have liked to see the moment when they realized their pandering had created a monster they were no longer controlling.

My quiet, worst-case scenario consolation is that if these people were ever to end up in control, it couldn't last more than a cycle: as soon as they attempted to transfer this rhetoric into actionable policy, I think America would realize that we as a country want no part in what they are talking about pretty quickly. Of course that would be a rough few years...