If the president wins re-election, his climate team is likely to try to cut greenhouse gases from steel, cement and other hard-to-clean-up manufacturing.
The US political system is designed to protect the prerogatives of the wealthy. It takes a sustained majority over time to overcome that. We’ve gotten to the point where there has been significant but not yet sufficient action:
It’s not so much about the stars all aligning, but needing to hold a majority of the centers of power for long enough. We’ve gone from being blown off to not having the votes to do anything at all to getting significant but not yet sufficient action. Getting to where we need to be is going to happen at some point, and it’s on us to make it happen sooner rather than later.
Also, opportunities for different policies are determined by the political cycle. Bold policies are usually done at the beginning of a term, presidential or otherwise because they know they’ve got the American people behind their back. They were just elected after all.
Mid-terms are usually when they focus on the economy and other things closer to normal people so that when the election roles around, what that politician did will be more salient in the voter’s mind.
A few reasons:
Sounds like it’s probably not going to happen then if all the stars have to alight to get it.
funny how real change is always just on the horizon but always out of reach. almost as if it were by design
The US political system is designed to protect the prerogatives of the wealthy. It takes a sustained majority over time to overcome that. We’ve gotten to the point where there has been significant but not yet sufficient action:
The Washington Post has a much more complete list
It’s not so much about the stars all aligning, but needing to hold a majority of the centers of power for long enough. We’ve gone from being blown off to not having the votes to do anything at all to getting significant but not yet sufficient action. Getting to where we need to be is going to happen at some point, and it’s on us to make it happen sooner rather than later.
I envy your optimism, but this just sounds like an empty promise with a built in scapegoat. What makes you so sure this will happen?
I’m not. It takes electing more and better Democrats instead of lurching into fascism. We could well fail, but it’s crazy to not try
It is hypothetically more likely to occur when folks who want it to occur are employed/elected than when those people are specifically absent
Also, opportunities for different policies are determined by the political cycle. Bold policies are usually done at the beginning of a term, presidential or otherwise because they know they’ve got the American people behind their back. They were just elected after all.
Mid-terms are usually when they focus on the economy and other things closer to normal people so that when the election roles around, what that politician did will be more salient in the voter’s mind.
We got a lot of that:
The Washington Post has a much more complete list
Some things got overturned in court, like the drilling permit moratorium.
Also, the mid-terms were in 2022. Getting more and better Democrats in congress plus reelecting Biden would make it possible to do a lot more.