OPINION: Democrats Weren't the Only Election Losers

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The 2024 Election’s various effects and impacts are still being evaluated. This was a historic election, and not only at the presidential level; the Senate and House are in Republican hands, and the GOP will be setting the agenda on a wide range of issues — including the Green New Deal and other climate-panic proposals.

To put it in a nutshell, those proposals will now be going nowhere.

At the Rasmussen Reports, a commentary by Stephen Moore, a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation and economic advisor to the Trump campaign, has some interesting observations as to how the climate issues affected this election. He makes some good points — but misses one or two as well.

A few days before last week’s election, Bernie Sanders issued a dire warning to voters: “If Donald Trump is elected, the struggle against climate change is over.”

He had that right.

Climate change fanaticism was effectively on the ballot last week. The green energy agenda was decisively defeated.

The daffy old Bolshevik from Vermont has a point as well, although he’s (as usual) short-sighted; sooner or later, as inevitably as a bad penny, we’ll have another Democrat presidency who will revive the issue. That’s an important thing to remember, and it’s important for the current crop of Republicans when they are hashing out policy issues. But for the next two years, at least, we don’t have to contend with economy-destroying proposals.

And, yes, it’s the economy that decided this election — the economy and illegal immigration. As Mr. Moore points out:

It turns out that the tens of millions of middle-class Americans who voted for Trump weren’t much interested in the temperature of the planet 50 years from now. They’re too busy trying to pay the bills.

That result shouldn’t be too surprising. Every poll in recent years has shown climate change ranks near the bottom of voter concerns. Jobs, inflation and illegal immigration register much higher on the scale of concerns.

The climate doesn’t compare to people not being able to fill their gas tank without taking out a second mortgage. The climate doesn’t compare to people dropping $300 at the grocery store and walking out with two small bags. The climate doesn’t compare with the tragedies suffered by the families of Laken Riley and Jocelyn Nungaray. The climate doesn’t compare with people’s daughters being forced to look the other way when a boy comes into their locker rooms and showers.

Those — along with the economy — are the issues that decided this election. Climate change, it turns out, is a luxury issue, mostly the concern of those who can afford it.

But if you asked the elite of America in the top 1% of income, climate change is seen as an immediate and existential threat to the planet. Our poll at Unleash Prosperity earlier this year found that the cultural elites were so hyper-obsessed with climate issues, they were in favor of banning air conditioning, nonessential air travel and many modern home appliances to stop global warming. Our study showed that not many of the other 99% agree.

Wake up, Bernie and Al Gore.

Climate change has become the ultimate luxury good: the richer you are, the more you fret about it.

Yeah, Bernie and Al Gore aren’t going to catch on. That’s a lost cause.

And as for that 1 percent — of course, if you have a net worth of $10 million, another buck a gallon for gas won’t bother you much. While we’re on that topic — wasn’t the Democratic Party supposed to be the party of the little guys? Not the 1 percent?

Clearly, that’s changed, and in no small part because Donald Trump made it happen. President-elect Trump has already stated his intent with regards to climate proposals:

What Will Trump II’s Energy Policies Look Like? Less Green, More Lean and Mean

Elections Have Consequences: Trump to End Offshore Wind Subsidies ‘on Day One’

Now, with a new administration coming in and a new Republican Congress being seated, climate scolds are going to have to take a back seat to the economic well-being of the American people, at least for a while. Oh, the climate-panic crowd will still be around, and they will continue to be the squeaky wheel calling out for grease. But, for the next couple of years at least, that grease will be applied elsewhere.

Elections have consequences. One of the primary consequences of this election was a return to some level of good sense. Good sense policies on the economy, on cutting the federal government back to something closer to its original form — go, Elon Musk! Good sense as well on immigration and, yes, on the environment. Nobody on Team Trump or anywhere else intends to go back to the late ’60s when city air was unbreathable and rivers were catching fire. We have the cleanest air and water that North America has had since the Industrial Revolution, and we still will four years from now. And, if things go according to plan, we’ll have affordable, abundant energy and a vibrant economy as well.

It’s early yet — but there are glimmerings of daylight in the east. Soon it will be morning in America again.