GOP Base Shows Support For Climate Bill

Conservatives like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck argue that capping carbon pollution would push America down the road to socialism. Recent polls suggest that most conservative voters don't agree.

So, the long awaited bill reduce America’s consumption of carbon has arrived, and the conventional wisdom holds that legislation capping carbon emissions has no chance of passage. However, this may not actually be the case.

A recent poll, carried out by the Republican survey firm Bellwether Research & Consulting, shows that 52 percent of both Republicans and self-identified conservatives would back a comprehensive energy policy that both boosts domestic energy production and caps carbon emissions.

Intriguingly, even 47 percent of poll respondents sympathetic to the Tea Party movement support that proposition, slightly outnumbering the 42 percent who oppose it.

If you take all your cues about conservative thought from radicals like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, the official dogma about energy is that capping carbon pollution would push America irretrievably down the road to socialist serfdom.

Apparently, a majority of Republicans and conservatives didn’t get that memo.

Here’s a tip for congressional Republicans: the Bellwether poll results show that there’s a pathway past partisan rancor towards a broadly supported energy bill that could start moving the country towards a cleaner, more secure energy economy – a path that values problem solving and statesmanship over political games. Take it, you’ll be glad you did.