There are several answers to this excellent question.
First and most obviously, about half of the U.S. electorate supports Donald Trump as our next president. At a minimum, that means anti-intellectualism and the rejection of science in policymaking. This applies to environmentalism in spades; in particular, these voters believe the claim that climate change is a hoax, that climate scientists are bilking taxpayers, and that efforts in this space are engineered to weaken U.S. capitalism.
Secondly, by virtue of the popularity Trump/MAGA, the Democrats have to be careful not to go too far to the left. There is essentially zero demand for a candidate like Elizabeth Warren, Chris Murphy, Jeff Merkley, Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, or any other progressive.
What Noam Chomsky says here is spot on, especially with respect to Trump.
What makes Trump so good at this is his facility to invent a new boogieman every couple of days. Communism, Dr. Fauci, Venezuela’s drug boats, Iran, birthright citizenship, democrats, the damage done by previous presidents, the climate hoax, the Kennedy Center, the arch, the vandals at the Reflecting Pool, Black Lives Matter, Antifa, liberals in education, the Hollywood elite, unsafe vaccinations, trans people, a nuclearized Iran, massive voter fraud, Haitians eating our pets, Harvard, the ex-Fed Chairman, NATO, wind turbines, the far-left radicals, the election control people, the list goes on.
Then there are the near-daily outrages:
Turning Gaza into a luxury resort, annexing Greenland, curtailing environmental emission standards, usurping the Panama Canal, refusing to pay E. Jean Carroll, pardoning hundreds of violent convicted felons, accepting bribes for pardoning white collar fraudsters, insider trading, orchestrating deals that benefit his children, targeting Jack Smith, protecting ICE agents who commit murder/manslaughter, and leasing federal wilderness land for oil exploration
The more indefensible the better.
Is her point that there are countries that are even more repressive to women’s rights?
Does anyone disagree with that?
The words at left may seem obvious to you and me but realize that we live among tens of millions of people who are completely desperate to cling onto their beliefs that Trump is an honest and effective servant of the American people, however contrary to the evidence this may be.
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