A coalition of conservative groups are likening Democrats’ two days of attacks against them on climate change to the tyrannical reign of King George.
“In a country where you should be the patriots leading us into a great future, sadly today you are the tyrants,” the groups said in a letter to Senate Democrats who used a series of floor speeches this week to criticize a number of free-market groups for supporting an anti-climate campaign that they say was funded by Exxon Mobil.
The groups assert that they have a right to debate the science of climate change, and any effort to block them from doing so is nothing less than a violation of their free speech rights under the Constitution.
“At the birth of our nation, patriots asserted their right to speech and broke British law in doing so,” said the letter, which was sent late Tuesday. “King George used the full force of the British crown to suppress the rebellion — to suppress speech.
“In spite of the tyrant’s commands and because they had put their lives on the line to defend their rights, the patriots enshrined free speech in our founding documents; the same documents that gave you your job,” the letter read.
The letter was signed by 21 free-market and conservative groups, including Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Heritage Foundation, Heartland Institute, Pacific Research Institute and the American Legislative Exchange Council.
The letter also points out that the groups are not a cabal. “While you have singled us out, labeling us as the enemy, we don’t even always agree with one another,” the letter said. “And that’s the point: disagreement breeds solutions.”
The group of 19 Democrats led by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, began floor speeches Monday targeting the groups. They accused them of accepting funds from Exxon and Koch Industries in a protracted campaign to undermine the science behind climate change and block efforts to combat the threat posed by global warming.
Many scientists blame greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, such as coal and oil, for raising the temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere. The result is more severe weather, drought and flooding.
“We hear you. Your threat is clear: There is a heavy and inconvenient cost to disagreeing with you. Calls for debate will be met with political retribution. That’s called tyranny. And, we reject it,” the conservative groups said in the letter.
