New Republic - No Possible Redemption For Frank Luntz, Other Paid Climate Liars
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But at last month’s hearing—titled “The Right Thing To Do: Conservatives for Climate Action”—Luntz said the public should move on. “That was a lifetime ago,” he said. “I’ve changed.” And now, instead of helping Republicans come up with messaging to avoid climate policy, Luntz said he wants to help Democrats come up with effective messaging to enact it. “But in return, you have to put policies ahead of politics,” Luntz said. “You have to make the commitment not to make it partisan.”
There will undoubtedly be more of these turns to the light in the future—pleas for forgiveness from Republicans and others who once denied the crisis unfolding before their eyes. The Arctic is on fire, storms are churning menacingly in the Atlantic, heat records are falling like dominos. Denial, though never particularly tenable, becomes more of a highwire act every day. Most converts should feel welcome in the political discussion about climate change; it’s a virtue to admit fault, after all. But those like Luntz—who actively furthered the climate crisis and continues to refuse to admit it—should be shunned. They have no practical use in the extremely urgent effort to solve global warming. They helped to break the world, and thus can’t be trusted to help fix it.
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Luntz has given no indication that he’s up for such a reckoning. Indeed, as he lamented that climate change had become a “partisan issue” and urged Democrats to “put policies ahead of politics” (are they not?), Luntz failed to acknowledge his own role in putting the lives of millions of people at risk of death and disease. Luntz, in other words, wants Democrats to forget about how he enabled Republicans to delay any meaningful action on the issue until this very day. And he wants Democrats to now take his advice on how to fix the problem he won’t admit he helped cause. He’s doing this at the same time that he’s cozying up to the Trump administration through his longtime friend, White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney.
Thanks, but no thanks. Luntz’s messaging ideas aren’t exactly groundbreaking anyway. He suggests avoiding the word “sustainability” in favor of words like “cleaner” and “healthier,” and talking about the benefits of climate action instead of the consequences of inaction. It’s perhaps useful advice, but the best case to do something about climate change is being made, unsurprisingly, by the climate itself. As the effects continue to multiply, almost half the country now thinks global warming will “pose a serious threat in their lifetime.”
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https://newrepublic.com/article/154649/reformed-climate-deniers-dont-deserve-redemption
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