Will Republicans Embrace Climate Change Mitigation?

Here’s a conservative young female voter, imploring the Republican Party to get on board with climate change mitigation.  She cites Republicans’ interest in conservation (though she doesn’t seem to realize that this is a thing of the distant past).

Ma’am, here’s your problem–dealing with climate change requires several things that are anathema to the GOP:

• Belief that government can solve problems, and acceptance of environmental regulation as a good thing

• Respect for science and willingness to take instructions from the scientific community

• Telling the oil industry to take a flying leap, and putting in place policies that will hasten its demise (where Big Oil funds so many GOP campaigns)

• International cooperation (rather than “God Bless America,” “America First,” etc.)

• Willingness on the part of a GOP-majority senate to allow voting on a measure that will likely originate from the Democrats

• Admitting that the environmentalists have been right all along, and that your party has acted badly in fostering climate denial

If I were a Republican with a sincere concern about climate change, I would take the far more straightforward route, and simply switch parties.