Marco Rubio, the stupidest savior of them all
By Michael J.W. Stickings
It's the water break that's been getting so much of the attention, because of course for the media it's all about the theatrics, but Republican wunderkind Marco Rubio's post-SOTU rebuttal the other night was nothing if not yet another recitation of the Republican Party's key points of ideological dogmatism. And among them was this gem about why nothing should be done about climate change: "our government can't control the weather."
He repeated it yesterday on Fox & Friends, where of course such ignorance is de rigueur, even more so than on Morning Joe:
Unsurprisingly, his statement didn't make any sense, but it seems that his point was that it doesn't matter what the U.S. does because countries like China and India that are "still growing" are "polluting in the atmosphere much greater than we are at this point" and aren't about to stop anytime soon, and besides, any attempt to address climate change would "devastate our economy."
This is ridiculous, of course. There are any number of things that can be done to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including market-oriented efforts like cap and trade (that Republicans once supported, back before the crazy took over completely).
But the stupidest part was Rubio's (typically Republican and remarkably ignorant) conflation of climate change and the weather. As Jon Chait wrote:
Yes, completely insane. (Climate change / global warming impacts the weather (e.g., stronger storms), but dealing with climate change isn't about the government controlling or changing the weather.
And this guy's the savior?
It's the water break that's been getting so much of the attention, because of course for the media it's all about the theatrics, but Republican wunderkind Marco Rubio's post-SOTU rebuttal the other night was nothing if not yet another recitation of the Republican Party's key points of ideological dogmatism. And among them was this gem about why nothing should be done about climate change: "our government can't control the weather."
He repeated it yesterday on Fox & Friends, where of course such ignorance is de rigueur, even more so than on Morning Joe:
The government can't change the weather. I said that in the speech. We can pass a bunch of laws that will destroy our economy, but it isn't going to change the weather.
Unsurprisingly, his statement didn't make any sense, but it seems that his point was that it doesn't matter what the U.S. does because countries like China and India that are "still growing" are "polluting in the atmosphere much greater than we are at this point" and aren't about to stop anytime soon, and besides, any attempt to address climate change would "devastate our economy."
This is ridiculous, of course. There are any number of things that can be done to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including market-oriented efforts like cap and trade (that Republicans once supported, back before the crazy took over completely).
But the stupidest part was Rubio's (typically Republican and remarkably ignorant) conflation of climate change and the weather. As Jon Chait wrote:
[W]hat's going on here is that Rubio wants to uphold the Republican position without coming across to non-Republicans as a total yahoo. So he is not directly questioning the carbon-climate link, but instead moving his skepticism to the climate-weather link. Saying "government can't control the weather" sounds plausible enough — a way to take a position that doesn't sound completely insane to audiences but is, in fact, completely insane. In this way, it is the quintessential Marco Rubio utterance.
Yes, completely insane. (Climate change / global warming impacts the weather (e.g., stronger storms), but dealing with climate change isn't about the government controlling or changing the weather.
And this guy's the savior?
Labels: climate change, global warming, Marco Rubio, Republicans, weather
posted by Michael J.W. Stickings at
9:30 AM
2 Comments:
Apparently the Republican Party is composed of American'ts and not Americans. Over and over they wring their hands and give limpid reasons why we can't do something because either everyone won't or it doesn't 100% solve the problem.
Then they talk about American Exceptionalism.
The Cognetive Dissonence must make the inside of their heads sound like a bee hive under attack by Bears.
By
ez, at 9:57 AM
Politics has increasingly become a cult of personality. Fewer and fewer persons committed to policy are in office. While the Democratic Party has some examples, the Republicans are infested with these types.
We are thus treated to a slew of saviors and minor saviors who flirt with the public arena.
Examples, certainly Rubio, Palin, Santorum, all fit this category.
By
Shared Humanity, at 10:40 AM
Post a Comment
<< Home