Friday, November 25, 2011

Godfather's Pizza and Al Gore


The graph shows a partisan change in approval of Godfather's Pizza since Herman Cain declared his candidacy for the Republican nomination (context here).  Republicans like his former company a lot more now, and Democrats a lot less.

I have in the past been pretty dismissive of claims from right-leaning and other analysts that Al Gore's prominence in climate change activism has much to do with Republican denial of climate reality.  Godfather's Pizza argues in favor of those claims, though.

Obviously, opinion on cheap pizza and on the fate of our climate involve different levels of moral responsibility.  If Republicans react poorly to Gore's warnings, that reflects poorly on them and not Gore.  Still, efforts like the We Can Solve It campaign might need a lot more reinforcement:




Of course, Gingrich has backed off of his earlier interest in reality.  There's only so much you can do, if the Republican leadership is so unwilling to do much anything at all.  Maybe there are a enough younger Republican leaders, people like Chris Christie (or maybe others like Romney and McCain if Romney loses next year), to join in the leadership on the climate movement.  Otherwise it's up to the public.

11 comments:

David B. Benson said...

But its a vegetable!

Richard Mercer said...

You can't count on Romney. He's joined the Republican denial cult too. Or at least for now. Hard to tell with him. Which way is the wind blowing?

J Bowers said...

Here's the real Godfather.

60 Minutes - The Pledge: Grover Norquist's hold on the GOP
Print version.

While he's around don't expect any progressive movement or sense from the GOP. Many who took his pledge are regretting it, but breaking the Faustian pact pretty much guarantees the boot from office.

Anonymous said...

Question. What have the Democrats done since January of 2007 to address the major issus of climate change? What was that? Nothing? oh carry on then.

Vote Democrat so you can be a sucker for their BS, at least Republicans tell you up front what they are and are not going to do, with Democrats it is ALWAYS different.


Celery Eater

Brian Schmidt said...

A few fewer R's in the Senate and we would've had cap and trade passed. The clear inference is to not vote Republican.

The state-level successes have been primarily tho not exclusively through Democrats.

BCC said...

Celery,

Aggressive vehicle fuel economy standards not good enough for you?

J Bowers said...

"at least Republicans tell you up front what they are and are not going to do"

How many Democrat legislators have taken a written public pledge tying themselves to set courses of action controlled by an unelected individual which they can't get out of should new evidence contradict the wisdom of such actions?

"But, hey, you can see the pledge papers, so at least they told you what they're gonna do or not gonna do!"

Anonymous said...

J Bowers,

That is the problems with Dems, they say one thing in public but do quite another when it is time for action. Take Pelosi, vocally decrying credit card companies while delaying legislation while her and her hisband get in on a VISA IPO not normally open to the public.

Same with recent emails and climate scientists, saying one thing in public and quite another in private. I live my life and what I say in private and public are the same thing. Dems are ruining the economy, have had 3+ years to fix it or make it better and they have failed.



Celery Eater

J Bowers said...

CE, hy would Democrats doing such things negate the probability of Republicans doing the same? You seem to be special pleading.

"Same with recent emails and climate scientists, saying one thing in public and quite another in private."

That's pathetic cognitive dissonance on your part. You ignore chronology and time and speculate that an opinion written one year or month could not have been resolved later, thus explaining an apparent inconsistency in decontextulaised and cherrypicked correspondence.

Anonymous said...

Good response J, that will help "the cause". However, could you please get some new responses from the team to help "the cause", because your response is sounding stale from over use.


Read an enitre email and cannot find the context! Still chuckling over that one, talk about denial!


Celery Eater

J Bowers said...

CE, the emails include dates. Try reading the entire email.