In our discussions of elections and parties I keep drawing the bell curve which shows the mid-point of the aggregate policy preferences in the general public, but probably haven't done enough to illustrate how the mid-point can move over time. Sometimes it drifts to the left (as it did in the New Deal Era) and sometimes to the right (as it did following election of Reagan -- actually Carter).
Here's an example. This story describes the rightward drift of environmental policy. Democrats have been proposing cap and trade policies to reduce greenhouse gas emission while Republican find them extreme, but 20 years ago Republicans were pushing cap and trade over strict regulations because it was the market solution to the problem. What was one a right wing proposal is not mainstream, and unacceptable to the right.
The cap and trade bill that died in the U.S. Congress in 2010 was based on market-oriented principles that were the centerpiece of George Bush Sr.’s cap and trade policy for sulfur dioxide, enacted in 1990. It permitted maximum flexibility in achieving its goals of greenhouse gas reductions over a long time horizon, giving businesses plenty of time to adjust and adapt. The bill’s intellectual foundations were so strongly rooted in conservative economics that then-presidential candidate John McCain was a huge supporter of the measure and included it in his presidential platform.
And yet today, the Republican-led House of Representatives has voted to deny the science of climate change and strip the EPA of its authority to regulate greenhouse gases, which was granted to the agency by a 5-4 decision in the very conservative-leaning Supreme Court. The GOP-led House has proposed gutting the EPA’s budget as well. And it gets worse.
