Bruce Reed observes in Slate today that hot states tend to vote Republican. Does this mean that global warming will inevitably increase the spread of red states? Do sweltering summers cause conservative politics?
21 of the 27 states with an average temperature over the last half century of more than 50 degrees Fahrenheit voted for Bush in 2004, providing 241 of his 286 electoral votes. In the 23 states with an average temperature below 50 degrees, by contrast, Democrats cleaned up in the electoral vote, 141 to 45.
The political climate is the same in the House of Representatives. Democrats actually have a 10-seat majority in cold states--and Democratic hopes for reclaiming the House in 2006 rest in large part on seats in Pennsylvania, New York, and elsewhere in the Northeast.
Republicans owe their current House majority to a nearly 40-seat advantage in hot states, as symbolized by two notorious sons of the Sunbelt, Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay. The margin would be even more lopsided if not for California, the Democrats' one significant inroad into milder climes.
Reed takes consolation in the fact that if global warming continues, the dry West and the deep South will become unbearable, and people will migrate back to the cool blue states of the Northeast. Personally, I don't want former Phoenix residents cluttering up my New England.
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Some Republicans don't mind distancing themselves from Bush and his low ratings on this issue:
Blair, Schwarzenegger sign climate pact
We're of the belief that Republicanism is ultimately self defeating for reasons such as these. On issue after issue, it's the red state residents that get screwed first and worst, and are least likely to have state-based programs to protect them when the federal government fails. Hence our collection of fun maps.
The problem with this argument when it comes to global warming is when all those coastal cities get whacked with rising tides and worsening weather. The midwest gets turned into a dustbowl, the blue states get drowned.
Personally, I don't want former Phoenix residents cluttering up my New England.
I couldn't agree more. New England rules but I somehow suspect that such would no longer be the case once we have a bunch of sun monkeys and Western frontier throwbacks here.
Quitter, the only problem is that the Red-Staters who haven't been hit with are mostly Katrina Traitors - they'll write off their fellow American, rather than admit that George Bush is a failure. I guess that it'll take disaster happening to them, personally, to make them see reality.