“Stand with Ukraine! Free Palestine! No One is Illegal!”
Did I forget any other empty slogans? For the last eight years, the basement-dwelling interlocutors of the Left have screamed and yelled for The Revolution, bearing their signs, blocking the streets, and bawling in front of politicians’ homes. [emphasis, links added]
Conservatives and the general public have endured these mantras blasted all over social media and the airwaves.
These empty epithets have dominated college campuses, overwhelmed classrooms and public squares, and they have featured prominently in debates, podcasts, and talk shows.
The Left never tires of finding causes to fight for. Whatever declares war on the West, undermines natural law and basic reality, and places power above principle, the Left lines up for the kill.
But there’s one slogan that has disappeared, one fight which has fizzled out:
The Climate Change Cult.
For the last 20 years, ever since Al Gore ended up without a job, liberal elites have clamored about the threats of global warming, rising sea levels, the carbon dioxide explosion in the skies, and that we had to do SOMETHING, ANYTHING! before catastrophe struck.
Now, no one seems to care about the weather, least of all the Left.
What happened?
Matt Ridley posits that the relentless doom and gloom tired out voters, and they tuned out from hearing “The Sky is Falling!” because the sky was not falling.
I am sure the disproven blather about the polar ice caps disappearing in 2012 convinced people, too, as they are still shining, chilling, gelling, and taking up more space in Antarctica and the Arctic.
But here’s the thing: in 2014 and beyond, academics, pundits, and politicians were still raising widespread alarm about climate change, long after failed former Vice President Gore’s catastrophic conclusions melted away. …snip…
After Trump won his first term in 2016, he followed through on a key campaign promise to exit the United States from the Paris Climate Accord. Leftists took to the streets denouncing Orange Man Bad. Weekly marches bellowing about Evil Trump often included denunciations of his climate denialism.
Only after Election 2024 have we witnessed the marked decline in crying about the climate. The “No Kings” protests never mention it.
There’s more to this political climate change than the fact that voters focused on other issues: crime, immigration, and the economy. After all, climate alarmists screamed about the weather for decades, whether the voters paid attention or not.
It’s not about the voters turning a deaf ear to the climate cult. It’s not the affordability issues that took everyone’s attention away from the weather.
If we want to understand why climate change no longer matters to the Left, look no further than Greta Thunberg.
Top photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
Read full post at Townhall
