The Changing Political Climate on Climate

Good Republicans don't worry about climate change--except as a liberal plot to destroy freedom. That's the stereotype you get listening to conservative media outlets--or liberal outlets reporting on conservatives. But a National Journal article suggests that, much like the effects of climate change, quiet but real shifts are beginning to occur within the party.

Mother and daughter Roberta and Michele Combs are pillars of the Religious Right. Roberta, president and CEO of the Christian Coalition America, got her start in Republican politics working with celebrated strategist Lee Atwater. Michele, who was named Young Republican of the Year in 1989 and worked as a planner for events such as George W. Bush’s inauguration, is the coalition’s communications director. With their white-blond bouffant hair, penchant for fuchsia lipstick, soft South Carolina accents, and sterling conservative bona fides, the Combses are familiar presences in the ruby-red heart of the GOP establishment.

That’s why it’s so surprising to many that they are tackling climate change. But both women see global warming, and clean air and environmental protection more broadly, as issues that tie into their core conservative mission of protecting family values.

“This is an important issue for the Republican Party,” Roberta Combs says. “At one point in time, this was a Republican issue, but Democrats took it over.”

Took it over? That's kind of like saying the air took over the land when the tide ran out. Nevertheless, the article paints a picture of increasing concern about the climate among Republican operatives and politicians. They just can't be too vocal about it yet.

Already, deep fissures are emerging between, on one side, a base of ideological voters and lawmakers with strong ties to powerful tea-party groups and super PACs funded by the fossil-fuel industry who see climate change as a false threat concocted by liberals to justify greater government control; and on the other side, a quiet group of moderates, younger voters, and leading conservative intellectuals who fear that if Republicans continue to dismiss or deny climate change, the party will become irrelevant.

One thread I want to pick up on comes from the opening of the article, which introduces climate scientist Kerry Emanuel.

Kerry Emanuel registered as a Republican as soon he turned 18, in 1973. The aspiring scientist was turned off by what he saw as the Left’s blind ideology....Back then, Emanuel saw the Republican Party as the political fit for a data-driven scientist.

Emanuel sees an inversion taking place, at least with respect to the climate, which reminds me of something Kevin Drum wrote a couple of weeks ago.

On the right, both climate change and questions about global limits on oil production have exited the realm of empirical debate and become full-blown fronts in the culture wars. You're required to mock them regardless of whether it makes any sense. And it's weird as hell. I mean, why would you disparage development of renewable energy?

If the National Journal's article is to be believed, things are quietly changing.

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