So Cute!! Young Republicans Take Bold Action W. New Ad; 2020 GOP Environment Platform Unchanged

[hatrack]

EDIT

The RNC’s executive panel voted to keep the 2016 platform last Wednesday because of a dustup between President Trump and North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, a Democrat, over the coronavirus protocol at Trump’s upcoming nomination speech in Charlotte. Cooper wanted the Trump team to implement social distancing measures to keep attendees safe from the spread of COVID-19. Trump, predictably, refused. The speech portion of the convention was ultimately moved to Jacksonville, Florida. Rather than make its 5,000 Republican delegates and alternates fly to both Jacksonville to see the president speak and Charlotte to vote on a new platform — or risk the possibility of a small number of rabble-rousing delegates gathering in Charlotte to pass a new platform while everyone else was distracted — the RNC decided to just keep its old platform.

EDIT

The 2016 platform uses the word “climate” in the context of climate change all of nine times. Highlights include “The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a political mechanism, not an unbiased scientific institution” and “climate change is far from this nation’s most pressing national security issue.” Sections on the environment aren’t much more nuanced or policy specific. “The environment is too important to be left to radical environmentalists,” the platform states before pivoting to the importance of job creation and a proposal to reduce the Environmental Protection Agency’s power. In all, the platform makes no acknowledgement of anthropogenic climate change and offers little in the way of solutions, apart from calling for “the cost-effective development of renewable energy sources” via private capital.

Since 2016, younger Republican voters and even some GOP lawmakers have started pushing for conservative climate solutions. The platform reflects none of that progress. All the while, the effects of rising temperatures are being felt all around the world. This year alone, the intersection of coronavirus and natural disasters like wildfires, hurricanes, and flooding threatens to overwhelm the nation’s disaster response system.

EDIT

In four short years, Republicans managed to put lightyears between themselves and Democrats just by standing still. Luckily for the party, its younger members don’t think cryogenically freezing Republican policy is a winning political strategy. On Monday, the American Conservative Coalition, an environmental group started by college Republicans, released a new ad aimed at their party’s elders called “The Future is Watching.” The ad will be playing all week on Fox News. “Join the young conservatives fighting for a clean future,” it says. Will the GOP heed that call? We’ll have to take a gander at the party’s platform in 2024.

EDIT/END

https://grist.org/politics/the-2020-republican-platform-make-america-2016-again/

[MLAA]

1. Waiting until 2024 to see if climate change will be addressed?

Without quick and sweeping climate action it is likely there will either be no 2024 or it will be too late to reverse the damage.