Fox News isn’t exactly a beacon of truth. And they certainly aren’t the most pro-science network. But the moderators of Wednesday’s Republican Presidential Debate actually managed to mostly like normal news people. Most notably and surprisingly, within the first half hour of the debate, they aired a question from a young GOP activist speaking about how the party’s stances on climate change have alienated young people. Following the video, the moderators brought up recent climate disasters like the wildfires in Hawaii and asked the candidates to raise their hands if they thought that “human behavior is causing climate change.”
I have to say I was quite surprised when I heard this being brought up, especially so soon into the debate. Fox Viewers don’t appear to have climate change at the top of their list of issues but maybe some do! Especially young people like the young man who asked the question. What I wasn’t surprised by was the responses from the candidates. Desperate to seem like ‘the man,’ Governor DeSantis interjected, seemingly against the idea of raising hands.
“We’re not schoolchildren. Let’s have the debate,” DeSantis barked. He then ripped into Biden’s response to the Hawaii wildfires, pushing the false narrative that somehow the president doesn’t care and isn’t doing anything.
The hand-raising never really happened, I guess thanks to DeSantis—which was very likely his goal when derailing the conversation. But super rich, super douchey Vivek Ramaswamy gave a clear response. He declared that “the climate change agenda is a hoax.” Such a weird position to take for the youngest guy on the stage. Vivek is more of a manufactured candidate though. He says what he thinks people will want to hear and what will make him gain traction. Nikki Haley made the provocative statement of saying that we care about clean water and air. She also said yes, climate change is real. Instead of offering real policies, though, she decided to go after India and China.
Senator Scott talked about bringing jobs back from China. So basically none of the major candidates have any real policies for helping curb the calamitous impact climate change is having. They clearly do not see it as an urgent issue that requires massive policy efforts. The Biden administration has done a lot to try on this issue, and even that may still not be enough. A Republican administration would be wildly damaging to the planet and it would be hard to see if we could recover.
Voters don’t seem to like climate change denialism. A debate dial from Navigator Research traced independent participants’ attitudes when Ramaswamy declared that climate change is a hoax. Their attitudes plummeted all the way across the board, especially with women. With their stances on climate change, Republicans are losing key groups like women and young voters. This doesn’t seem like a path to victory for them, luckily for us.
