{"id":10831,"date":"2013-11-02T12:16:01","date_gmt":"2013-11-02T19:16:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=10831"},"modified":"2013-11-02T12:16:01","modified_gmt":"2013-11-02T19:16:01","slug":"the-tea-partys-climate-change-denialism-is-scaring-off-the-gop-regulars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=10831","title":{"rendered":"The Tea Party’s Climate Change Denialism Is Scaring Off The GOP Regulars"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Tea Party has always been the GOP’s far-right flank. Despite its small membership and radical views, it has mustered up an undue measure of influence in the Republican Party due to its fanatical posturing and wealthy financial backers. Now a new study<\/a> by the Pew Research Center sheds light on a profound split between Main Street Republicans and the deep right-field Tea Party. Pew’s research reveals that…<\/p>\n

“Just 25% of Tea Party Republicans say there is solid evidence of global warming, compared with 61% of non-Tea Party Republicans.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So a solid majority of Republicans recognize the reality of Climate Change that is affirmed by 97% of scientists<\/a> who have studied the matter. But only 25% of Tea Partiers respect the peer-reviewed evidence of Climate Change. While some of the Tea Partiers say that they don’t have enough information as to whether the Earth is warming, a majority of the skeptics stubbornly insist that it’s “just not happening.”<\/em><\/p>\n

This split between the Tea Party and the rest of their Republican pals in the public at large is not reflected in the GOP representation in Congress where a majority of the GOP caucus aligns itself with the deniers. Nor is it represented in the conservative media that stridently rejects any suggestion that the planet faces any climate risks. The inevitable result of that divergence is that a portion of the population is woefully misinformed about Climate Change. Even worse, the bias disseminated by right-wing media foments a distrust<\/a> in science and scientists in general.<\/p>\n

\"Fox
\nBe Sure To \u201cLIKE\u201d News Corpse On Facebook<\/a><\/center>
\n<\/p>\n

Consequently we see absurd departures from reality that are based strictly on partisan propaganda. When the White House issued an executive order<\/a> to facilitate “efforts to improve climate preparedness and resilience; help safeguard our economy, infrastructure, environment, and natural resources,”<\/em> Fox News covered the event<\/a> by saying that “Obama uses executive order in sweeping takeover of nation’s climate change policies.”<\/em> The report had an alarmist tone in warning that the order will “potentially skirt legislative oversight and push a federal agenda on states.”<\/em> Fox ignored the actual substance of the order that explicitly stated that “This order shall be implemented consistent with U.S. obligations under international agreements and applicable U.S. law, and be subject to the availability of appropriations.”<\/em> The language addressing appropriations specifically bows to the oversight authority of Congress that Fox denied existed.<\/p>\n

Fox’s report further injected a partisan intent on the part of the White House to deliver climate policy implementation to a cabal of Democrats. Three separate times in the report Fox noted the presence of Democrats on the task force that the executive order created. Why that should surprise anyone is a mystery. The President is entirely within his rights to appoint members of his party to executive branch committees. More importantly, why would anyone go out of their way to put the sort of climate science deniers that dominate the Republican Party on a committee tasked with mitigating the effects of Climate Change? It would be like asking atheists to lead the Christian church’s membership drive.<\/p>\n

By disseminating false and misleading information about Climate Change, Fox News has been a significant factor in dumbing down the small portion of the electorate that is glued to their network. The more gullible among them, specifically the Tea Party faction, have become ardent opponents of reform measures to address Climate Change. And now it appears that they have drifted so far from the GOP mainstream that they have little in common with the average Republican’s position on this issue.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the Republicans in Congress will continue to obstruct reasonable reforms that are supported by the majority of America, and even the majority of their party. That defiance is directly attributable to their fear of Tea Party primary challenges and their dependence on Tea Party billionaires like the Koch brothers. Until the GOP unshackles itself from their extremist wing and exhibits a willingness to cooperate on issues where they share common ground, voters must replace them with either common sense Republicans or Democrats. And if the Pew study is any indication, Republican voters are getting ready to do just that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Tea Party has always been the GOP’s far-right flank. Despite its small membership and radical views, it has mustered up an undue measure of influence in the Republican Party due to its fanatical posturing and wealthy financial backers. Now a new study by the Pew Research Center sheds light on a profound split between […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"The #TeaParty's Climate Change Denialism Is Scaring Off The GOP Regulars","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[473,1],"tags":[1068,33,301,534],"class_list":["post-10831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","category-general","tag-climate-change","tag-fox-news","tag-republicans","tag-tea-party"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-2OH","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6207,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=6207","url_meta":{"origin":10831,"position":0},"title":"Has The Tea Party Gone Cold?","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/17\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"An article today in The Hill has collected some evidence of the fading influence of the Tea Party. The author, Josh Lederman, leads off the column with the declarative statement that \"The Tea Party is falling to pieces.\" He then goes on to enumerate the reasons for that assessment, including:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5059,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=5059","url_meta":{"origin":10831,"position":1},"title":"Why Is Anyone Listening To The #@$%*#& Tea Party?","author":"Mark NC","date":"7\/31\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"What is so hard about this? Congress is struggling to fashion a compromise agreement on a bill to raise the debt ceiling. The Republicans are insisting on attaching unrelated provisions to the bill to satisfy the tantrums of Tea Party-affiliated members who are demanding deficit reduction that imposes severe spending\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=219"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10284,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=10284","url_meta":{"origin":10831,"position":2},"title":"Tea Party Poopers: Old, White, Evangelical, Men Spell Doom For The GOP","author":"Mark NC","date":"7\/31\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The fortunes of the Tea Party have declined considerably since their founding a couple of years ago. Majorities of Americans view them unfavorably and they have caused some notable electoral losses where otherwise a conservative Republican was expected to win. A new survey by Pew Research reveals an even more\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4022,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=4022","url_meta":{"origin":10831,"position":3},"title":"Tea Party: Losing Ground And Desperate","author":"Mark NC","date":"3\/8\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The ongoing conflict in Wisconsin between an intransigent, union-busting governor and the representatives of average, working Americans is trending consistently toward the position of the people. Despite millions of dollars of Koch Industries lobbying funds, the Republicans and union bashers are, in their own words, \"losing ground.\" This is an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1554,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1554","url_meta":{"origin":10831,"position":4},"title":"The G.O.P. Morphs Into The G.O.Tea","author":"Mark NC","date":"2\/7\/2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The National Tea Party Convention is over, but the battle for the soul of the so-called \"movement\" continues. Sarah Palin set the tone at her keynote speech to close the affair: \"The Republican Party would be really smart to start trying to absorb as much of the Tea Party movement\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20875,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=20875","url_meta":{"origin":10831,"position":5},"title":"Tea-Bola Infects The GOP: Symptoms Include Secession Obsession And California-itis","author":"Mark NC","date":"10\/6\/2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Today's Republican Party is very, very sick. They are exhibiting symptoms of acute cognitive failure and an inability to distinguish fantasy from reality. This severe case of Tea-Bola is what accounts for their insistence that the federal government keep its hands off of Medicare; and their denial of Climate Change\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"Tea-Bola","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/tea-bola1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/tea-bola1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/tea-bola1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10831"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10833,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10831\/revisions\/10833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}