The People Reject Climate Fanaticism

It’s beginning to feel like a joke. Our elite intellectuals, from both sides of the political spectrum, love democracy. They respect election results.

In this country all of their worship of liberal democracy boils down to a subliminal influence-- in favor of liberal democrats. Who is more closely aligned with liberal democracy than liberal democrats?

So, let us cross the Atlantic and arrive at Berlin. Recently, the voters of Berlin had an opportunity to affirm a referendum that promised climate neutrality by 2030. How green can you get?

The sad part, for the green zealots, was that the referendum failed, majestically. From a blog called the No Trick Zone:

Last Sunday’s “Berlin Climate Neutrality By 2030” referendum failed resoundingly despite the more than a million euros spent in a massive run-up campaign that included plastering the city with posters, concerts by famous performers, huge support and propaganda by the media and hefty donations coming from left wing activists from the east and west coasts of USA.

How badly did it do?

Once the dust of the referendum had settled, it emerged that the “yes” side fell way short of the quorum 608,000 votes needed to pass the measure. Only 442,210 cast a vote in favor, which represents only 18% of Berlin’s eligible voters. The activists expected a far greater turnout. 82% refused to lend any support.

It was bad news for Germany’s Greens:

Berlin’s rejection of the climate neutrality by 2030 mandate is a massive body blow to the the radical Fridays for Future and Last Generation movement in Germany, and it will take months for the radicals to recover, it ever, from this setback.

Why did it happen?

Berliners, having been harassed for months by activists gluing themselves to the streets and blocking traffic, saw the folly of the initiative and the high costs it would entail politically and financially. They decided resoundingly they’d wanted no part of it.

It turns out that Green fanatics are bad at politics. They harass, but do not persuade:

Social Democrat Dario Schramm wept on Twitter at the gloating that would now come from the other side. But he and other supporters of the green ban politics need not be surprised. For years they have been spreading their ideas of good politics for years in a self-righteous, arrogant and sometimes aggressive manner.

They, mostly members of the upper middle class, have declared war on the lower and lower middle class with their destructive climate measures. Outside the Berlin political bubble and the other urban feel-good oases of Germany, the Neubauers of this world never possessed much support. And now the bubble has finally burst. In the Marzahn, Köpenick and Lichtenberg districts, the majority of voters voted against the referendum. The normal working population of Berlin decided against the journalistic and political elite.”

Of course, in one of our more optimistic moods we would like to see a similar referendum put to a vote in the United States. Thanks to the Biden administration, we are suffering from a flood of climate-friendly reforms, without anyone having voted for them. The Green New Deal might be pure flakery, but one suspects that the American people would never affirm it by a vote. So much for democracy.