Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) today on the Senate floor:
“So, you may have a question for me,” Whitehouse said. “Why do you care?
Why do you, Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, care if we
Republicans run off the climate cliff like a bunch of proverbial
lemmings and disgrace ourselves? I’ll tell you why. We’re stuck in this
together. We are stuck in this together. When cyclones tear up Oklahoma
and hurricanes swamp Alabama and wildfires scorch Texas, you come to us,
the rest of the country, for billions of dollars to recover. And the
damage that your polluters and deniers are doing doesn’t just hit
Oklahoma and Alabama and Texas. It hits Rhode Island with floods and
storms. It hits Oregon with acidified seas, it hits Montana with dying
forests. So, like it or not, we’re in this together. [snip]
So, I want this future: I want a Republican Party that has returned to
its senses and is strong and a worthy adversary in a strong America that
has done right by its people and the world. That’s what I want. I don’t
want this future. I don’t want a Republican Party disgraced, that let
its extremists run off the cliff, and an America suffering from grave
economic and environmental and diplomatic damage because we failed,
because we didn’t wake up and do our duty to our people, and because we
didn’t lead the world. I do not want that future. But that’s where we’re
headed. So I will keep reaching out and calling out, ever hopeful that
you will wake up before it is too late.”
All falling on deaf ears with loud mouths, no doubt.
