June 03, 2014
An NYT article on President Obama’s plan to have the Environmental Protection Agency impose restrictions on the emission of carbon dioxide told readers:
“Many Republican governors, in particular, are ideologically opposed to the prospect of enacting cap-and-trade programs.”
How would the NYT know Republican’ governors ideological beliefs and why would they think it is the basis for their actions? Politicians are not elected for their political philosophy, they are elected because they get the support of powerful interest groups. They advance their careers by pleasing these interest groups. Why would the NYT think that politicians would turn around and act on their ideology, rather than serving these interest groups?
It may be news to the NYT, but politicians sometimes don’t give the real reason for their actions. Since it probably doesn’t sound good to say that you are willing to let the planet be destroyed to serve the coal and industry magnates that contribute to your campaign, it shouldn’t be surprising that many politicians will say that they oppose measures to restrict emissions for ideological reasons.
As a practical matter if the NYT wants to claim the opposition is for ideological reasons, it might be worth explaining to readers what the ideology is. The issue with carbon dioxide emissions is that they are creating damage to large parts of the world through changing the climate. This means rising oceans leading to enormous problems of flooding in densely populated countries like Bangladesh. It also means increased desertification in places like Sub-Saharan Africa. The result will be hundreds of millions of people losing their livelihood and in many cases their lives.
It would be interesting to know what ideology the NYT thinks these Republican governors hold that says that people have a right to destroy others’ property and take their lives with impunity. It’s certainly not one that is openly espoused. (It’s not worth claiming that they don’t believe in human caused global warming. Not one of them is that ignorant.)
Note: link fixed.
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