“On Saturday, the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) withdrew its support for a climate debate among Democratic primary candidates, the result of a strange little media kerfuffle.
One of the event’s cosponsors, the New Republic (full disclosure: I am at present writing for TNR), had published an article on Democratic primary candidate Pete Buttigieg that Twitter found to be in poor taste. Mayor Pete, as he’s popularly known, has been a particular favorite of rich, Wall Street donors, who view him as a capitalism-friendly alternative to Bernie Sanders. Whatever one thinks of the now-deleted essay, the LCV’s decision seemed odd, coming after TNR deleted the essay from its site with an apology. (TNR itself even withdrew as a sponsor of the climate debate, and the author of the offending piece, Dale Peck, a left-wing gay writer, has been permanently banned from the magazine’s pages.)
What kind of environmental group would prioritize the delicate sensibilities of Mayor Pete’s wealthy backers over debate among our leaders about how life on earth will survive the coming century? Answer: one that is deeply dependent on wealthy backers and the goodwill of neoliberal politicians.”
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Featherstone, Liza. Jacobin 18 June 2019.