The GOP has a few unscrupulous political bullying tactics to prevail, either by gaining public opinion or convincing Democrats to pre-compromise followed by one-sided "bipartisianship." One is the fear card based on racism/sexism/lies, whatever suits its whims. The GOP can't use the fear card with climate change because the reality of impacts is frightening. You can imagine the ads we would see if the GOP supported climate change and the Democrats opposed. The horror of impacts happening now and projected to occur are worse than any lies the GOP typically use on issues to scare and shock Americans into supporting their positions.
So the GOP relies on its standby that comprehensive climate change legislation is a tax. This ignores the reality that we already are paying a fossil fuel tax based on the corporate welfare paid to fossil fuel industry as we foot the bill for external costs. While not planned beforehand, our Gulf Recovery Blogathon focused on a variety of these costs. I think this might be an effective message to counter the GOP's "cap and tax" that appears to have impacted public support for climate change reform.
continued at Daily Kos....
