The Hockey Schtick:
Tom Steyer became a billionaire by investing in fossil fuels, among other things, and maybe he should return to his roots. He may need the money after blowing at least $74 million trying to persuade voters to oppose Republicans who disagree with him on climate change.
If you want proof that money doesn’t buy elections, Mr. Steyer and his fellow green comrades are it. The San Francisco investor gave most of his money to his NextGen Climate Action Super Pac, which spent almost exclusively for Democrats. Environmental groups including NextGen spent $85 million to support President Obama ’s green agenda, especially his regulations targeting coal for extinction.
They didn’t even get a lousy T-shirt, and they aren’t taking it well. “Despite the climate movement’s significant investments and an unprecedented get out the vote program, strong voices for climate action were defeated and candidates paid for by corporate interests and bolstered by sinister voter suppression tactics won the day,” declared Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune.
Venting can be healthy, but self-deception isn’t. Mr. Brune should really blame the economic reality that the U.S. boom in fossil-fuel production is creating high-paying jobs and reducing energy costs across the economy. By contrast, Mr. Obama’s green agenda has created few jobs and raised costs for millions of Americans.
Voters in Pacific Heights or Manhattan may not mind paying more for their self-styled political virtue, but the average Debbie in Dubuque would rather not. The mistake too many Democrats made was listening to Mr. Steyer instead of Debbie.
This year’s environmental debate boiled down to Democratic support for Mr. Obama’s climate rules and green subsidies against full-throated Republican support for energy production of all sorts, including coal, oil and natural-gas fracking, more pipelines and greater fossil-fuel exports. These GOP candidates won nearly everywhere.
The big mistake elites keep making is thinking they can convince the rabble to vote with them by spending lots of money.
But elites forget an important thing:
For all their money, elites only get one vote each.
India’s elites lost rulership this year.
The UK’s IP party (non-elites) took a majority in their gov’t this year also.
In the USA there has been some conflating between the TEA Party and the populist (anti-elite) voting bloc.
The media read it wrong and thought Dems would hold.
Even politicians got it wrong thinking if TEA Party members were not on the ballot then Dems and RINOs would win.
Actually almost all of those new elected Republicans ran on the promise to try to repeal ObamaCare. (An anti-elite position.)
How that plays out may be piecemeal or whole cloth, who knows.
But Obama’s 24 unilateral changes to ObamaCare will not be the end of it.
But, look, over there! It’s the Koch brothers being evil, creating jobs and supporting the agenda that made America great and strong!!