President Joe Biden on Wednesday spoke about climate change, and where he also memorably bizarre remarks in Brayton Point, Massachusetts, where he caused confusion on a potential cancer diagnosis and was seen shaking hands, maskless, a day before it was announced he tested positive for COVID-19.
After his speech yesterday, a maskless Joe Biden met and shook hands with supporters in the audience.
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) July 21, 2022
Today, the White House announced that he tested positive for COVID. pic.twitter.com/KYGHpC3yxP
Although Biden did not go as far as progressives wanted him to, which would have been declaring an emergency on climate change, he did issue an executive order, bashing what, as Katie highlighted, is a Democratically-controlled Congress.
"Since Congress is not acting on this emergency, President Biden will. In the coming weeks, President Biden will announce additional executive actions," a White House fact-sheet lamented. "Since President Biden set a bold goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030, the Administration has approved the first large-scale projects and new wind energy areas."
The White House's preoccupation with climate change, or, what it describes as a "climate crisis," is one more way in which the Biden administration has shown to be tone-deaf and out of touch with the priorities that everyday Americans care about.
"1% of Americans" has been trending on Twitter, in reference to last Monday's poll from The New York Times/Siena College showing that 1 percent of total voters consider it the most important issue facing the country right now. Just 3 percent of Democrats answered as much.
Twenty percent chose "the economy (including jobs, stock market)" as their most important issue, while 15 percent chose "inflation and the cost of living."
That poll surveyed 894 registered voters from July 5-7, with a margin of error of 4.1 percentage points.
NEW - Just 1% of Americans named "climate change" as the most important problem facing the US in a recent NYT poll.
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) July 20, 2022
Biden to announce new actions on "climate change" later today.pic.twitter.com/nXLXLlOEmL
It's not merely that poll that shows climate change is hardly a priority for voters or even the president's base.
The most recent FiveThirtyEight survey polling Americans' views on top issues found that climate change was the eighth most important issue, with 13 percent selecting it as the most important. That actually appears to be the best that the issue has polled.
That poll surveyed 1,549 adults from June 27-July 5.
A Quinnipiac poll released on Wednesday found that 6 percent of respondents selected it as the most important issue, though it was a higher priority among Democrats, at 11 percent, putting it in the top five issues of what those respondents care about.
Twenty-two percent of Democrats regard gun violence as their top issue; 14 percent selected abortion and inflation; 12 percent selected election laws; and 11 percent selected climate change.
Nearly a majority of Republicans, at 48 percent, chose inflation as their most important issue, while 16 percent said immigration. No other issue got above 7 percent.
Overall, a plurality of respondents, at 34 percent, chose inflation as the top issue.
That poll surveyed 1,523 adults from July 14-18, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.
Although The Washington Post's Philip Bump didn't seem to bother hiding his disdain for voters when writing his analysis on how "Once again, voters see more urgent issues than the burning planet," he does acknowledge it's not a major campaign issue.
Bump referenced an Economist/YouGov poll, which gauged respondents' level of importance on issues overall, but also when it comes to the upcoming November election midterms, now about three and a half months away.
Climate change ranks as a slight issue of importance overall than it does for the election. While Democrats seem to care about it for the midterms, they also consider nine issues overall as important.
Overall, climate change is at the bottom of issues considered "very important," with a plurality rather than a majority saying so.
The 15 issues the poll examines rank as follows when it comes to the percentage of respondents who label that issue as "very important" for the upcoming midterm elections:
- Inflation/prices, 72 percent
- Jobs and the economy, 62 percent
- Guns, 60 percent
- Crime, 60 percent
- Taxes and government spending, 59 percent
- Health care, 57 percent
- National Security, 56 percent
- Civil rights, 55 percent
- Civil liberties, 54 percent
- Abortion, 51 percent
- Immigration, 50 percent
- Education, 46 percent
- Criminal justice reform, 43 percent
- Climate change and the environment, 40 percent
- Foreign policy, 39 percent
That poll was conducted July 9-11 with 1,500 adults.
In closing, Bump further condescendingly writes that "Voters in November are more likely to make their selections based on gasoline's price than the long-term effects of burning it."