By now it should be obvious that what was once the party of Lincoln has become a disturbing mix of Jim Crowe, and others who see hidden conspiracies in every natural fact or empirical measurement. Psychologists call it projection, sociologists might throw in a touch of Dunning-Kruger.
But the bottom line is big hurricanes are one of those things that scares today’s freakier conservatives for two very good reasons: hurricanes are a product of ocean heat, and they often demand a centralized government response to save lives and property. The first causes conservatives fits because there might be a link to climate change, the second because it could reflect well on government, especially the federal government led by Obama. So, does this really come as a surprise?
“The deplorables are starting to wonder if govt has been lying to them about Hurricane Matthew intensity to make exaggerated point on climate,” and “Hurricane Center has monopoly on data. No way of verifying claims. Nassau ground observations DID NOT match statements! 165mph gusts? WHERE?” Drudge later posted the web address of a NOAA buoy and encouraged readers to monitor the storm on their own, to see if “observations match the Hurricane Center’s claimed 140 mph sustained winds.”
On Wednesday, Rush Limbaugh expressed a similar sentiment on his radio show, saying that government scientists might be “playing games” with storm data in order to “sell” the role climate change has played in making hurricanes stronger.
In my estimation these clowns made an educated guess that Matthew would have to stay on a very narrow course at a very high intensity for the worst-case scenario to unfold. Hurricanes don’t usually do either one of those things for long, let alone both. And if things go the other way and the storm lived up to the most dire warnings, hide behind the wall to wall coverage or howl with feigned outrage at the federal response.
But at least in this once instance of mendacity, they are hurting their own cause. Hurricanes mostly affect conservative states, the people most open to conservative grifting, in this case downplaying the danger of a given hurricane and staying put when they should evacuate, are themselves conservative. In short, and sad to say, hurricane trutherism eventually reduces conservative voter turnout in specific districts through differential mortality.