GOP turned ‘anti-environment’ because of its irrational ‘culture war’ against ‘woke’ elites: NY Times Krugman

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New York Times columnist Paul Krugman argued that Republicans have turned against the environment because the issue is now part of their "culture war" against anything "woke."

The author asserted that because corporations that push "wokeness" – meaning underlining issues on "race and social justice" – now push climate change initiatives as well, conservatives and GOP politicians have more incentive to push back on the climate change issue.

Krugman began the column reminiscing on a bygone era where even "a first-term senator from Kentucky named Mitch McConnell" voted in 1990 to pass an amendment to the Clean Air Act of 1970. 

"What’s really striking from today’s perspective, however, is the fact that the 1990 legislation passed Congress with overwhelming, bipartisan majorities," he commented, before observing that would never happen today. 

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Paul Krugman said Republicans' lack of care for the environment is inspired by their culture war against pro-environment, woke elites. (Ricardo Rubio/Europa Press via Getty Images)

"The Inflation Reduction Act — which, despite its name, is mainly a climate bill with a side helping of health reform — didn’t receive a single Republican vote," Krugman noted, referencing the legislation that will be signed by President Joe Biden on Tuesday.

He claimed, "Now, the I.R.A. isn’t a leftist plan to insert Big Government into everyone’s lives: It doesn’t coerce Americans into going green; it relies on subsidies to promote low-emission technologies, probably creating many new jobs." 

"So why the scorched-earth G.O.P. opposition?" he asked, before putting out his own hypothesis. "The immediate answer is that the Republican Party has turned strongly anti-environmental over time. But why?"

Krugman provided some recent history of the GOP’s attitude toward environmental policy, claiming that in the 1990s, "self-identified Republicans and Democrats weren’t that different in their environmental views." Democrats were more amenable to protecting the environment, though "the gaps" between the two parties on these issues "were relatively modest," he added.

Krugman argued it has now changed dramatically, "Since then, however, these gaps have widened into chasms, and not in a symmetrical way: Democrats have become somewhat more supportive of environmental action, but Republicans have become much less supportive."

Stating that it has been a recent shift, "having taken place since around 2008," Krugman sought out why. He claimed, "It’s not about belief in free markets and opposition to government intervention," because "Republicans have tried to use the power of the state to promote polluting energy sources even when the private sector prefers alternatives."

Krugman discounted the notion "that the G.O.P. is simply in the pocket of fossil fuel interests" because "energy companies like BP and Shell" endorsed the Inflation Reduction Act, which no Republicans support.

The Dave Johnson coal-fired power plant is silhouetted against the morning sun in Glenrock, Wyoming, July 27, 2018. (AP Photo/J. David Ake, File)

The columnist then provided his thesis, writing, "What has happened, I’d argue, is that environmental policy has been caught up in the culture war — which is, in turn, largely driven by issues of race and ethnicity. This, I suspect, is why the partisan divide on the environment widened so much after America elected its first Black president."

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Krugman claimed it’s because the right views pro-environment corporations as "woke" and thus are more encouraged to stand in their way. Krugman explained this idea of "wokeness" in a manner pejorative to Republicans. "Wokeness normally means talking about racial and social justice. On the right — which is increasingly defined by attempts to limit the rights of Americans who aren’t straight white Christians — it has become a term of abuse."

"Teaching students about the role of racism in American history is bad because it’s woke. But so, apparently, are many other things, like Cracker Barrel offering meatless sausage and being concerned about climate change," he added. 

Cinching up his loose argument, Krugman stated, "This may not make much sense intellectually, but you can see how it works emotionally. Who tends to worry about the environment? Often, people who also worry about social justice — either that, or global elites. (Climate science is very much a global enterprise.)" 

According to the author this anti-woke, anti-globalist attitude is so strong among the right that "Even Republicans who have to know better won’t break with the party’s anti-science position." "As governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney had a decent environmental record; yet he joined every other Republican member of Congress in voting against the I.R.A.," Krugman wrote.

As such, he concluded, "What this means is that those people hoping for bipartisan efforts on climate are probably deluding themselves. Environmental protection is now part of the culture war, and neither policy details nor rational argument matters."

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Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer speaks about the Inflation Reduction Act at a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on Aug. 5, 2022. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)