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But the numbers in the Yale database—strong majorities, veering into supermajorities, who report they’re worried about climate change and support the phaseout of fossil fuels, even in Republican districts—mean that climate change is fertile ground for such efforts. And there are ample kitchen-table arguments for climate policy. There are the clean energy benefits cited in the Cowardly 21’s letter: increasing domestic manufacturing, promoting energy innovation, and keeping utility costs down. There are the millions of Americans struggling from out-of-control home insurance rates in areas vulnerable to climate-related disasters. There are the profound human and economic costs of these disasters: the lethal floods in Texas, apocalyptic fires in Los Angeles, hurricanes across the East Coast, and extreme heat in the Southwest. And there are all the other everyday ways in which climate change is destroying the things we love. Earlier this month I was talking to a friend, an avid hunter who had recently returned from a trip to Northern Maine. He described how he’d never seen the area, which he’s been visiting for years, in such severe drought, and said that he only encountered around 20 percent of the grouse that he would normally come across on such a trip. (Maine just had one of its driest summers ever recorded.) He didn’t initially connect this disappointing hunting experience to climate change—but a few minutes after I made the connection, he was complaining about the Trump administration’s corrupt efforts to shut down clean energy on behalf of Big Oil. Democrats need to make those connections, which together comprise a powerful political message. There’s no reason the Cowardly 21 shouldn’t pay an electoral price for their willingness to throw their constituents—other than the really rich ones—under the bus. There’s political gold here. Let’s start mining it.
