Whatever else may be said about Ken Bone, the red-sweatered citizen questioner at the second presidential debate earned an important place in the pantheon of presidential debates: He's the only person to ask a debate question remotely related to climate change in the last eight years.
As it happens, his question wasn't all that direct, since it didn't actually use the words "climate change." Here's what he asked: "What steps will your energy policy take to meet our energy needs, while at the same time remaining environmentally friendly, and minimizing job loss for fossil power plant workers?"
Donald Trump, not surprisingly, wasn't all that interested in talking about climate change, what with it being a Chinese hoax and all that. To her credit, Hillary Clinton made the connection, actually uttering the words, "climate change," as part of a discussion about the economics of energy and the need to revitalize coal country even as we shift away from coal as a source of energy for environmental reasons.
And that's the extent of the conversation we've had in the debates about this genuinely existential issue for the human race.
In the third debate, Chris Wallace of Fox News not only moderated but wrote and chose the questions he'd ask. He's been widely praised for controlling the debate admirably, and I'd agree he did a good job of traffic control, given the traffic. That said, since he was the only moderator who had the benefit of knowing what had already been asked in previous debates, he was the one in a position to fill in the issue gaps. I suppose that's what he tried to do in some areas, because while he worked some already heavily plowed territory, he did raise a few questions other moderators had not.
But not climate change.
Another way to describe his questions would be to say that he ripped a few pages from the Fox playbook. Take a look at the frames he chose.
Wallace’s most disturbing frame of the night, however, was reserved for a discussion about Social Security and Medicare, which he labeled "entitlements," using a term most Americans probably equate with welfare programs. In fact, Americans pay into the Social Security and Medicare trust funds over the course of their working lives, in exchange for which they receive health care once they're 65 years old and a modest monthly check when they retire. The program is a lifeline for many Americans, and since it was enacted by FDR in 1935 it has genuinely transformed what it means to be elderly in the United States.
Wallace went on to say, incorrectly, that both programs will "run out of money" within the next 20 or so years, when in fact, what will actually happen, if we do nothing, is that the trust funds for these programs would be depleted, forcing them to rely on then-current contributions to sustain payments. That money-in-money-out circumstance would decrease payments to about 79 percent of the promised rate, declining to 74 percent by 2090. Now that's not good, and policymakers need to do something about it. But it does not mean, as Wallace clearly suggests, that Social Security payments and Medicare payments will stop.
It may well be that Wallace thought he was asking "fair and balanced" questions. But a debate that had time to rehash a number of issues that had already been discussed, and one that had time for Wallace to put his network's right-wing frame on a number of questions, should surely have found time for a straight-up question about climate change, an overarching issue that we simply cannot afford to leave unaddressed.
Full disclosure: In 1984, I worked on presidential debates for the League of Women Voters Education Fund, the national organization that sponsored the debates before it was muscled out of the business by the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, the current sponsor. The League was known for producing stodgy debates that required viewers to listen to two-minute long answers in a rigid format – in other words, debates that didn't feature interrupting and heckling. I miss the decorum. We learned a lot about the candidates this year from their behavior, which is valuable, but we didn’t learn nearly as much about where they'd take the country if elected.
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Matthew Freeman | October 26, 2016
Whatever else may be said about Ken Bone, the red-sweatered citizen questioner at the second presidential debate earned an important place in the pantheon of presidential debates: He’s the only person to ask a debate question remotely related to climate change in the last eight years. As it happens, his question wasn’t all that direct, since it didn’t actually […]
David Flores | October 18, 2016
To date, climate adaptation and resilience planning efforts on the local, state, and federal levels have largely focused on protecting residential, commercial, and municipal infrastructure from sea level rise and deadly storm surge through such structural practices as shoreline armoring. However, a growing number of advocates are raising concerns about the threat that extreme weather […]
Evan Isaacson | October 17, 2016
Today, the Center for Progressive Reform (CPR) is releasing an assessment of the plans and progress of Baltimore City and the nine largest counties in Maryland to comply with their federal stormwater permits, a key component of the ongoing effort to clean up the Chesapeake Bay and restore it to health. The analysis looks carefully […]
Brian Gumm | October 12, 2016
NEWS RELEASE: Center for Progressive Reform Welcomes New Climate Adaptation Policy Analyst Today, the Center for Progressive Reform (CPR) announced that David Flores has joined the organization as its new policy analyst. Flores will serve alongside the group’s staff and Member Scholars in their efforts to protect public health and the environment, with a particular focus […]
James Goodwin | October 10, 2016
Originally published by the Oxford Business Law Blog. Reprinted with permission. Forced arbitration clauses are now almost impossible to avoid in consumer contracts for financial services and products ranging from credit cards to private student loans. Despite their ubiquity, most consumers aren’t even aware of them. This is because companies frequently bury them deep in […]
Katie Tracy | October 5, 2016
When it comes to worker health and safety, preventing injuries and illnesses is the number one goal. It was for this very purpose that Congress enacted the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act) and tasked the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) with setting and enforcing strong workplace standards. But when preventative measures fail […]
William Funk | October 3, 2016
Originally posted at Notice & Comment, a blog of the Yale Journal on Regulation and the American Bar Association Section of Administrative Law & Regulatory Practice, as part of an online symposium entitled Reflections on Seminole Rock: The Past, Present, and Future of Deference to Agency Regulatory Interpretations. Reprinted with permission. The Separation of Powers […]
Matthew Freeman | September 30, 2016
In a story published yesterday, the Center for Public Integrity takes a deep dive into the public health impact of the nation’s “super polluters,” a collection of industrial polluters that account for an outsized share of toxic air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. Produced in collaboration with USA Today and The […]
Jeremy Baker | September 29, 2016
Larry Hogan promised to be the “best environmental governor that’s ever served” in Maryland. But three recent policy developments call that claim into question. Earlier this year, the Hogan administration vetoed the Clean Energy Jobs Act, which would have raised Maryland’s renewable energy portfolio standard – the share of electricity that energy providers must derive […]