Actually Julius Caesar started it. Or at least, he got credit for starting it. And I guess a talent for dirty tricks in Republicans was always a given.

“Mostly I am sorry for the way I thought of other people. Like a good general, I had treated everyone who wasn’t with me as against me.”
-Lee Atwater

“Perception is reality.”
-Lee Atwater

And guess what: we’re beginning to find out that smart people are better at it than stupid ones.

Its about driving a wedge between the immigrant and environmental communities and exploiting any potential conflicts those two groups might have against each other.

This is classic Karl Rove strategy: political jiu-jitsu. Attack your opponents by targeting their strengths and turning them against them. The idea is to foil any possibility of collaboration between environmental and immigration interests, and if possible, to promote conflict between those two groups.

Divide et impera

A classic example of drawing wrong conclusions from data. A “first world” lifestyle creates more “emissions” than living in a yurt. If the guy in the yurt moves to New York and buys a car, that increases the problem.

On the other hand, if the guy in the yurt moves to the capital city of his own country and buys a car, it’s the same thing.

It’s not where he lives, it’s the car. And the hot tub, gas grill, TV set, and not dying at forty like he’s supposed to.

Right now emissions are being driven far more by second and third world countries ramping up their lifestyles than by immigration into our country. In recent years, world poverty and the associated misery has dropped like a rock.