this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2024
208 points (98.6% liked)

politics

19120 readers
2104 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
top 22 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] MyOpinion@lemm.ee 39 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I still have no idea how Fracking became something that Dems supported. Fracking is like taking a shit in your ground water.

[–] sxan@midwest.social 39 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Someone else pointed out that they blocked the fracking bill.

However, this is a tough topic for Dems, and it's one of the reasons the Teamsters haven't endorsed them; one of the reasons is because industries like fracking provides well-paying blue-collar jobs.

Remember, back in 2016, when Hillary said at a rally that if she was elected they were going to shut down the coal industry? That was a "they said the quiet part out loud" moment for blue-collar industry, and while it's too much blame to lay on Hillary, it really did drive another nail in the coffin of blue-collar support for Democrats, which they're still struggling to recover.

Democrats have two conflicting goals: support blue collar jobs, and stop environmental destruction. Actions like this benefit the environment, but cost them votes and the support of Unions.

It's a catch-22. Biden did a fantastic thing showing up at that picket line, but there's a long way to go to recover those blue-collar votes.

[–] zaph@sh.itjust.works 23 points 2 months ago (2 children)

industries like fracking provides well-paying blue-collar jobs.

I hate this so much. Can I create a business that employs people to add small amounts of cyanide to a city's water supply and when they try to shut me down claim they're taking jobs away from Americans?

[–] sxan@midwest.social 15 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You're not wrong, but the oil and gas industry, and generations of families have made livings on it, and our resulting current world status and wealth is largely founded upon it.

It's a problem; you can hate the problem, but ignoring it isn't a solution, and it's cost Democrats elections. This isn't a handful of Klansmen; it's an entire industry. The supply chain employs nearly 10M people in the US. Telling then you fuck off, relocate, and find different jobs doesn't win any votes.

[–] Moneo@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Democrats could minimize these issues if they communicated better. If they just said "fracking destroys our communities and hurts americans. We are going to invest in green energy and training fracking workers to transition to different industries".

It's like how they aren't pointing out that undocumented migrants are regular tax paying people, and deporting them would be horrible. Instead of doing that they've moved further to the right and now are campaigning about how Trump blocked their awful border bill.

Democrats only have themselves to blame. They have absolutely no idea what they are doing.

[–] 5C5C5C@programming.dev 5 points 2 months ago (2 children)

You'd be amazed at how resistant most people are to anything that feels unfamiliar, even if it's good for them. Coal and oil jobs are familiar, green jobs are not.

It should be as simple as you're suggesting, but sadly it isn't.

[–] Moneo@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I don't buy it. It feels like these vague arguments are used against any progressive policy. "We can't tax the rich cause then they'll leave the country!"

If fossil fuel workers are so stubborn that they will refuse to vote for a party that wants to transition them into green energy jobs then their votes aren't worth it. If the democratic party allows the workers of a single industry to determine their climate policy then they are revealing themselves to be spineless and useless politicians.

[–] USSMojave@startrek.website 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Don't let perfect be the enemy of good. The reality is that dismantling an industry so enmeshed in our economy, both nationally and locally, is HARD. People WILL be negatively impacted and it would be stupid to ignore that. Democrats have to walk a very thin tightrope to not alienate people, which is what will happen if we go as hard as we should

[–] isaaclw@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

I think the media doesn't help, and people don't talk about how bad climate change is. Everyone buries their head in the sand

[–] Drusas@fedia.io 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That's what they said about coal and the messaging didn't help. People associated with the coal industry still saw it as an attack against them and their way of life.

[–] Moneo@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Fuck those people then. The democrats should not allow a small portion of the population to dictate something as important as climate policy.

The only way this argument makes any sense is if we assume the democrats are spineless and useless. Which they are, but still.

[–] Drusas@fedia.io 1 points 2 months ago

Democrats need votes if they're going to accomplish anything, so they have to compromise. I agree that it's not great and I wish that we had a progressive party with any power to it.

[–] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Please don't try, that's all I'm saying

[–] geekwithsoul@lemm.ee 14 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Um, the Democrats stopped a pro fracking bill…

[–] CatsGoMOW@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I assume they’re referring to Harris saying that, as president, she would not ban fracking and taking that to mean that she supports it.

However, not banning something doesn’t necessarily mean you actually support it. I would think that being in support of fracking means you’d be looking to encourage/expand it. Which she hasn’t done to my knowledge.

[–] geekwithsoul@lemm.ee 3 points 2 months ago

Yeah, I suppose that could be it. Also, I don’t think that people realize that if a major party candidate called for a ban on fracking with the on-going war in Ukraine still an issue, it would send energy prices across the world skyrocketing. One of the whole reasons we’ve been ramping up production in the US is to stabilize oil prices.

Yet another reason it would be really nice if Republicans quit playing games about aid and support for Ukraine. The quicker Russia withdraws troops, the quicker we can step away from fracking.

[–] MyOpinion@lemm.ee -5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yes but they have been supporting it on the campaign trail.

[–] geekwithsoul@lemm.ee 11 points 2 months ago

No, Harris said she wouldn’t ban it - that’s not the same. Part of the reason we’ve ramped up production in the US is to stabilize global energy prices that were wildly climbing after Russia invaded Ukraine. If we hadn’t, there would be much broader global pressure on Ukraine to capitulate and cede part of its territory to Russia.

If she’d said in the debate that she’d support banning fracking, it would have sent global oil prices spiraling upwards just on the threat of it.

We get Putin out of Ukraine, we can start stepping away from fracking. But a permanent ban is unlikely for just this reason we find ourselves in now - geopolitical events may mean we have to do it again in an emergency. Without such an emergency there’s still a lot we can do to stop it outside extreme situations.

[–] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Another silly bill coming from the clown-show Republican House. I'm really crossing my fingers for a trifecta, so we can get actually useful policy accomplished. Get'er done Americans!

I fear the Senate is going to lose their majority. But who knows? Maybe all of this fuckin around is going to bite them in the ass.

So the bill just prevents Harris from declaring a fracking ban. I guess that's technically pro-fracking, but a vote against that bill isn't necessarily anti-fracking - rather they may just prefer an unrestricted Harris who has all options on the table.

[–] MediaBiasFactChecker@lemmy.world -3 points 2 months ago

E&E News - News Source Context (Click to view Full Report)Information for E&E News:

MBFC: Left-Center - Credibility: High - Factual Reporting: High - United States of America
Wikipedia about this source

Search topics on Ground.Newshttps://www.eenews.net/articles/democrats-block-pro-fracking-bill-in-the-senate/
Media Bias Fact Check | bot support