Fatigue Alone Won't Do It

An article about "Green Fatigue" ends by illustrating perfectly a mistaken assumption very common among conservatives:

Of course. the upside to a bad economy is that people who worry about their finances and less about the environment also start ignoring Greenpeace and Union of Concerned Scientists. Maybe then we can get actual reality-based science policy rather than more calls for top-down social authoritarianism about their politics.

There is no such upside if (1) people are not generally aware that there is a practical alternative to central planning or (2) people do not also regard that alternative as moral. Put another way, being poor does not deterministically shape someone's views on the proper role of government. (Contra the above writer's "upside", see Venezuela, and countless other nations that have freely elected redistributionist despots.) The Democrats may well succeed in annoying most of their constituency with prophecies of environmental doom, but if enough people are convinced that government programs can keep them fed and housed, that will not make a difference, since the Democrats advocate those things as well.

Counting on the Democrats to screw up is foolish. People need to understand why central planning (for any purpose) is detrimental to their liberty and lives. The Democrats always have and always will helpfully provide the dots, but voters will often need help connecting them.

-- CAV