PoliGazette » Americans Favor Republicans on Eight of Ten Top Issues

As I have been saying at Dutch blog De Dagelijkse Standaard for months now, I consider a Republican comeback in 2010 all but inevitable. Democrats in Congress, and President Barack Obama, started to overplay their hand at the very moment they took office this year, after Democrats had won all elections.

They mistook their victories for a radical change in American society at large. America is no longer a center right nation, or so they said. As a result, they immediately pushed big, expansive plans through Congress that would radically alter the relationship between citizens and their government, but that would do little else. The stimulus plan was expensive, and increased the size of the federal government tremendously, but will do nothing to actually stimulate the economy. Obama’s health care plans will destroy the current strengths of the American health care system, but does little to deal with its existing weaknesses. The Democrats’ climate change bills, nonetheless, will reduce global warming by… nothing, but they will weaken the American economy considerably and cost the tax payer a whole lot of money nonetheless.

Carbon-Based: [Only YOU can prevent] carbon sequestration

Oregon State University News: Widely sought efforts to reduce fuels that increase catastrophic fire in Pacific Northwest forests will be counterproductive to another important societal goal of sequestering carbon to help offset global warming, forestry researchers at Oregon State University conclude in a new report.

U.S. global warming efforts not much of a stretch, if cap and trade is it

...I can't support Cap and Trade legislation that is hugely ineffective, and relies on the natural rate of efficiency improvements for its eventual 'success.'

Back to the drawing board, folks.

Global Warming: The Precautionary Principle Backfires | Climate Realists

But if the planet cools, what then? Half the northern hemisphere landmass will be uninhabitable (and much of the southern hemisphere too). Climates will alternate viciously from year to year; no animal that is unable to migrate will be safe. The wealthy populations of Europe and North America, whose countries will be covered in ice, will obviously not simply sit down and die; they'll migrate south and take the remaining warm places for themselves. Whatever the outcome, there will be wars, starvation, and unthinkable human and wildlife deaths. If we escape without half the world's population dying, we'll be very, very lucky indeed.

So here's my vision of a wise precautionary principle: take advantage of any heating that human activity is making happen. If industrial activity is pumping up the planet's temperature some degrees, excellent. The IPCC says we are making big changes, but climate realists, more credibly, say we are making only small changes. But big or small, any warming we can organise will forestall the next ice age. By lots (the alarmists) or only a little (climate realists), it all helps.