Long story short: Billionaire-backed centrist groups told them not to. But with the midterms days away, is that really a good idea?

But for how important this election will be for Planet Earth and the humans who live on it, the issue itself isn’t getting much airtime. Earlier this month, The Guardian examined the campaign websites of Democratic and Republican Senate candidates in eight battleground states. Of all the candidates surveyed, only two explicitly mentioned climate change.

This retreat hasn’t happened by accident. Over the last two years, some of the Democratic Party’s most influential strategists, donors, and think tanks have been explicitly telling candidates to shut up about climate change and focus on the economy instead—as if those were two separate issues.

It’s a strategy known as climate hushing. And with the midterms fast-approaching, it’s worth asking: Who convinced Democrats that ignoring climate change was a winning strategy? Does the evidence actually support that argument? And what is that silence costing the rest of us?

  • FuglyDuck@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    18 hours ago

    Before you respond next you should take a moment to consider why you just said something that’s so obviously untrue.

    You should take a moment to understand American voters. And also to not be an ass.

    I’m sorry that you don’t under stand that US politics is decided on a small handful of issues. Recognizing that isn’t “stupid” it’s simply paying the fuck attention.

    If you really want to know where a candidate stands on climate change, I’m sure you can find that, or just ask their campaign and get an answer. But they’re only going to hammering on a few issues because that’s how the America voter just is.

    Re-read what you just wrote about El-Sayed.

    Candidates right now are running on parallel messages of affordability and protecting democracy, and Abdul El Sayed [snip] also has healthcare as a core part of his platform and I’m pretty sure I remember him talking about foreign wars.

    That’s two things.

    1. protecting democracy
    2. affordability

    His messaging in detail about what those two things means and what he’s gonna do about it include things like Medicare for all, and ending costly foreign wars and removing corruption. Personally, it’s actually only one thing. Because right now Trump’s and the rest of the admin’s rampant corruption is the primary cause of affordability.

    You’re acting like they have to message on every topic. And no single campaign (especially national campaigns, but state wide campaigns are bad enough,) can cover every single topic you might be interested in; and right now these things are what Americans are into so that’s what they’re driving home.