Posted on 04/09/2024 6:42:22 AM PDT by Red Badger
Here's something we learned just from Politico's headline: Republicans are waging a crusade against electric cars, and they might regret that in the 2024 election.
Politico is correct if waging a crusade against electric cars means opposing EV mandates and impossible deadlines. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm wants the entire U.S. military fleet to be electric by 2030. It was Politico who told us last December that the Biden administration's $7.5 billion allocation had led to exactly zero charges being installed two years later.
It's funny … Politico told us one year ago that Republicans were stoking the fires of the next big culture war: electric vehicles. Just last month, Politico suggested a brilliant idea to get conservatives on board with EVs … electric vehicle racing. Politico asked if Formula E — the world’s only all-electric racing series — could save Joe Biden's presidency.
In other words, Politico is all over the place, demonstrating exactly how poorly the policy of EVs has been handled. Now they have an opinion piece saying Republicans might come to regret their "crusade" against electric cars this November, according to a recent poll.
Mike Murphy writes:
First, we asked voters if they had a mostly favorable, mixed or mostly unfavorable opinion of “American car brands.” On this topic Republicans and Democrats were in lockstep: Republicans rated American car brands 59 percent mostly favorable while Democrats rated them 55 percent mostly favorable.
But when we asked voters to rate “electric car brands” the partisan divide was stark: GOP voters gave electric car brands a net 40 percent unfavorable rating, while Democrats gave EV brands a 15 percent net favorable rating. That’s a huge, 55-point gap between Republicans and Democrats.
Why such Republican hostility toward electric cars? It’s tribal. In our modern politics any friend of my enemy must be my enemy too. If Joe Biden is for EVs, we must be against them. GOP politicians looking for cheap applause cannot help but pile on and amplify one of the latest turns in the culture war.
Yet there is real political downside for Republicans who embrace this easy feedback loop of EV attacks.
Independents, though, could be turned off by the Republican crusade against EVs, swinging the election to Biden.
Extreme climate activists Extinction Rebellion just showed up at the New York Autoshow and poured oil all over an electric vehicle in protest. They posted a press release:
Electric vehicles do not solve the fundamental problems with cars. The construction of electric vehicles is as carbon-intensive, if not more so, than that of conventional cars powered by fossil fuels. More important, cars themselves damage the climate in many ways above and beyond their gas consumption. Cars are constructed out of materials that are very difficult to produce. The excessive steel in cars is incredibly climate-unfriendly to produce. The many superfluous electronics in cars contain rare earth metals and require expensive, shipping-intensive manufacturing processes. The fact that cars are heavier and larger than they need to be means that all cars, including electric ones, are incompatible with a livable future.
"All cars … are incompatible with a livable future." We're all going to be forced to live in "15-minute cities."
This Republican doesn't care if you buy an electric car or not. But don't pretend the mandates aren't out there. California has already announced an upcoming ban on gas-powered lawnmowers in the state. You won't be able to buy a gas-powered mower in California. It will be illegal.
A ban on gas stoves was also part of the Republican "culture war," remember? No one was going to ban gas stoves. It was a right-wing conspiracy theory, until it wasn't.
Once there's a reliable network of charging stations coast-to-coast and people can recharge their cars in five minutes, there might be a demand. But the technology isn't there yet.
***
Geez, I feel so terrible. NOT!
I think we all know that issues get distorted when the media is pushing certain narratives.
It’s not as if Republicans and conservatives oppose electric cars. I think we oppose electric car MANDATES which seem impossible to achieve.
But it’s easier and more simplistic for liberals and media types to say that Republicans are against electric cars, and by extension,, are against doing things to have a clean environment.
and when Electric Cars prove to be a total disaster they’ll also blame that on the Republicans ,LOL
The “C” word.
Electric cars the Disposable Razor of transport , use it and throw it away because no one will want it
Why such Republican hostility toward electric cars?
The stupidness of the idea.
That EV is good for some situations but not most.
etc
Republicans love dirty air and dirty water and want to see inside your bedroom and close your vagina whether you have one or not...............And the Dem base will believe.................
yep. they will blame republicans too when the EV crowd can’t get out of the path of the next big hurricane because they DIDN’T GAS UP THE ESCAPE VEHICLE! it will be all the republicans fault. one thing most conservatives have that completely escapes the liberal mind is the innate ability to extrapolate from given information. honestly...ask yourself IF you know or have ever met a liberal who has ever been able to exercise the fine art of extrapolation and you will find NONE. if they could they wouldn’t be democrats. just fyi.
I guarantee you China, Russia, North Korea, Iran and Venezuela aren’t doing that...............
Jennifer can’t remember her failed EV road trip and the US military will spend most of their time sitting around charging
Eventually...when batteries start piling up....We will go back to Gas cars....the cleanest and cheapest form of travel.
Electric car mandates are unwise and unnecessary to achieve. They are certainly possible to achieve by jailing or killing everyone who drives an ICE vehicle, and the crazy Rats are certainly capable of doing that.
I was never against them. I do not think we are ready for them yet because our grid s in bad shape and they have yet to work out all the problems like weight, roads, EV charging, cold weather and water issues.
We should have stayed for a long time with our gas powered and kept improving hybrids until we were ready for total EV.
Which we are not.
Republicans?
Americans!
The car industry says in 2 years EVs will make a big leap forward so why would anyone buy one now ?
The Dems are anti-choice.
>>>The Dems are anti-choice.<<<
You have a choice: Their way or die......................
Like Rush, I put the top down and the AC on full while driving on a hot day.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.