Republicans try to save their deteriorating party with another push for a carbon tax | Dana Nuccitelli

Like opposing civil rights and gay marriage, climate denial will drive voters away from the GOP

The Republican Party is rotting away. The problem is that GOP policies just aren’t popular. Most Americans unsurprisingly oppose climate denial, tax cuts for the wealthy, and putting children (including toddlers) in concentration camps, for example.

The Republican Party has thus far managed to continue winning elections by creating “a coalition between racists and plutocrats,” as Paul Krugman put it. The party’s economic policies are aimed at benefitting wealthy individuals and corporations, but that’s a slim segment of the American electorate. The plutocrats can fund political campaigns, but to capture enough votes to win elections, the GOP has resorted to identity politics. Research has consistently shown that Trump won because of racial resentment among white voters.

The modern GOP is basically Steve Bannon, Steve King and Stephen Miller on one side engaged in a project to preserve and enshrine dominance for its ethnic/racial base, and Paul Ryan and John Roberts on the other who pretend they have no idea what they’re up to.

we came here to talk about a crisis. Your job is to inform the American people, our job is to provide solutions. ... God help us if we don’t solve this debt crisis. This is the No. 1 topic in America today … I want to make sure that the few minutes that we have didn’t get hijacked by the current shiny object of the day. [The national debt] is the current crisis in America.