Robinson Meyer wondered back in August if, for all of the Democratic Party’s talk, climate change really matters to its leaders, candidates, and voters, in one of the more insightful pieces on the topic.
The Democratic National Committee had just rejected a proposal to hold a climate change-focused primary debate. And Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who had made climate change the primary focus of his short-lived presidential campaign, had dropped out.
“In other words, climate change may occupy a position in the party much like Elizabeth Warren does in the primary: Both are just about every Democrat’s second-best friend,” Meyer wrote for the Atlantic.
Meyer’s conclusion about Warren might prove wrong, but he was spot-on about climate change and how it has fared in the Democratic Party. Inslee was the first climate champion on the scene and also one of the first to exit the race. This week, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, who relied on his climate policies almost as much as his Democratic track record in a red state, followed Inslee’s lead.
Billionaire Tom Steyer, despite positively titanic levels of campaign spending, is lagging behind in the polls. The billionaire activist has barely broken 2% nationally. It seems that no amount of impeachment talk or global warming alarmism will be enough to convince voters to give him a chance.
Each of these candidates has individual faults that have certainly contributed to their campaigns’ failures. Inslee didn’t have the name recognition that many of his opponents enjoyed. Bullock entered the race far too late. And with Steyer, it’s hard to look past the recent scandals that have rocked his campaign — that is, if you even know who he is after the forgettable impression he has left in two debate appearances.
But perhaps these lackluster candidacies also speak to how unpopular climate activism is among most voters. The topic of climate change is one thing. Polls continue to confirm that it is indeed a top priority for Democratic voters. But the action climate activists demand and the militancy that has infiltrated the movement tend to dissuade and isolate independent thinkers.
And can we blame them? In the past few months, we’ve been told that meat consumption is evil, that all forms of non-fuel-efficient travel should be banned, and that our normal, everyday routines must be sacrificed at the altar of misanthropic environmentalism. That’s not an appealing message, and it’s certainly not a winning strategy. As Cinestate editor-in-chief Sonny Bunch wrote in the Washington Post earlier this year, there’s a reason environmentalists make such good movie villains, and it’s because “they want to make your real life worse.”
Until Democrats figure out how to separate Inslee’s, Bullock’s, and, to a certain extent, Steyer’s pragmatic approach from the radicalism of today’s climate activists, these candidates will continue to drop like flies. It’s only a matter of time.
