October 10, 2010

Return of the Know-Nothings

Ron Brownstein writes of a startlingly willful ignorance in a column in the National Journal.

Republicans in this country are coalescing around a uniquely dismissive position on climate change. The GOP is stampeding toward an absolutist rejection of climate science that appears unmatched among major political parties around the globe, even conservative ones.

[snip]

Of the 20 serious GOP Senate challengers who have taken a position, 19 have declared that the science of climate change is inconclusive or flat-out incorrect.

The original American Know Nothings were fearful of German and Irish immigration, not science. The name came from the scripted reply its members were supposed to give when asked about Party activities. They later renamed themselves the Native American Party and then faded away, mostly assimilated into the Republican party of the mid-1800s.

Maybe calling our new crop of fools Know Nothings is unfair to the original ones; they didn't deny reality, they just wanted to stop its spread. The current bunch seems to think if they all just stick their fingers in their ears and say "la la la I can't hear you" that the planet will stop heating up. Kind of like small children, I guess.

But that attitude is not only America's problem, as Brownstein concludes:

It will be difficult for the world to move meaningfully against climate disruption if the United States does not. And it will be almost impossible for the U.S. to act if one party not only rejects the most common solution proposed for the problem (cap-and-trade) but repudiates even the idea that there is a problem to be solved.

Posted by Linkmeister at October 10, 2010 12:01 AM | TrackBack
Comments
Of the 20 serious GOP Senate challengers who have taken a position, 19 have declared that the science of climate change is inconclusive or flat-out incorrect.
Well, now, these guys are politicians. I think it's much more likely they're lying about what they believe than that they actually believe anything at all.

As bozoid as these people are though,, they're not a match for the Flat Earth Society or the anti-Copernicans. "***ALL False Science is held together by the weak, Bible-bashing, vulnerable Copernican Lie of a Rotating, Orbiting Earth***" I tell you what, Galileo and Copernicus are sure rotating in their graves about now.

Posted by: Bruce Cohen (Speaker to Managers) at October 10, 2010 12:20 PM

I dunno. Remember that Lindsey Graham was the only Republican even willing to talk about an energy bill, and even then only if it could be done sub rosa to keep Fox News off his back.

Posted by: Linkmeister at October 10, 2010 12:56 PM