Climate Change Is Still Second or Third Fiddle for Democrats

Lev Radin/Pacific Press via ZUMA

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The closing statements from the candidates in a debate are entirely freestyle. They don’t have to respond to a question. They don’t have to worry about what some other candidate just said about them. For one minute, it’s a chance to tell the country what they think truly defines them.

FWIW, that doesn’t appear to be climate change. Of the ten candidates on the stage last Wednesday, eight didn’t mention it at all. Elizabeth Warren mentioned it in passing as part of a laundry list, and even Tom Steyer only gave it a single sentence. Roughly speaking, the main topic the ten candidates addressed went like this:

race, business background, race, technology, decency, race, race, race, corruption, US is greatest country in the world

Race got five shoutouts; beating Trump got three; technology got one; and rah rah USA got one. This is fairly normal, I suppose, since closing statements are meant to either inspire or instill fear, not get into the weeds on policy. Nonetheless, for a group of people who are all willing to raise their hands to agree that climate change is an existential threat, they sure didn’t even feel like name-checking it when they had a free chance to do so. Apparently they didn’t think it was a subject that would motivate their voters.

Sadly, they were probably right.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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