There are still a few exceptions such as California's governor, but increasinly the GOP is defining itself as the GWP (Global Warming Party). This GWP consists of flat-earth science haters, certain libertarian extremists, and a Nero faction that apparently just wants to watch as the world heats up. This year poses a major test for the small number of sitting Republican Senators who have not denied or actually cheered on the prospect of Global Warming, and the intial signs are not positive in the case of one J
Global Warming Party
Today we learned that Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire who less than a year ago supported bringing a cap and trade bill to the floor of the Senate has changed his mind. (http://washingtonindependent.com/32707/gopers-flip-on-cap-and-trade)
Judd Gregg’s apostasy on cap and trade is just the latest indicator that the Republican Party is no longer the GOP but the GWP, the Global Warming Party. The GWP has several wings: flat earthers libertarian fundamentalists, and the Nero faction who just want to watch as the world burns.
There are the flat-earthers such as Senator Inhofe: they apparently simply choose to believe as a matter of faith that global warming is not real. If Portuguese sea farers sent out to explore the Atlantic by Prince Henry the Navigator had not discovered that the Atlantic Ocean was not boiling hot Senator Inhofe and those of his ilk might believe that as well. For this group of GWPers, disbelief in global warming seems to be faith based and increasingly a core of identity politics.
A smaller branch of the GWP insists that global warming must be good. This strain of thought is found chiefly among some extremist libertarians. Talk of melting ice caps, inundated low lands, and Florida underwater is such a downer. No, we’ll be hot, toasty and rich! (For an example of this see: http://www.cato.org/... And better still, a hot climate is also good for animal life, and not just for termites. John Tierney of the New York Times told us that polar bears might flourish in a warming world. (The Good News Bears: http://www.nytimes.com/...
The basic assumption here is that if people did something operating in a free market than it must be good.
The third branch of the GWP consists of the small number group within the Global Warming Party that apparently admits that the problem is real but refuses to take any action. Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire can serve as a poster child for this faction. Senator Gregg favored consideration of cap and trade when it was part of the McCain Warner climate security act, though he could not manage to actually vote (http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&sessi
on=2&vote=00145) but now he is against it, supposedly because he does not want any revenue from cap and trade spent on funding clean energy. Senator Gregg throws in a jibe against Al Gore (red meat for the flat-earth GWP faction): "They shouldn’t using it as stalking horse for his [Obama’s] special interests," he said. "That’s the Al Gore fund." The United States has been subsidizing dirty energy for decades as we rose to number one among greenhouse gas emitting nations—that apparently was just fine and dandy-but under no circumstances should we actually help to pay for the remedies for the damage.
Ben Lieberman (though extremely obscure I'll follow the trend in dispensing with my handle)