Climate Change? Nahhh ...

Every member of Congress, every member of the Senate, the inhabitant of the White House. ... is there because of the wishes of the electorate. When that leads to proscriptive outcomes some people like, you often hear, "Deal with it. Elections have consequences."

If you don't want Exxon trying to exert influence, my suggestion would be to first question a government that has exploded in size to a $6.3 trillion budget representing nearly a quarter of our economy. If you are in favor of that when it benefits the non-Exxon players or causes you favor, I'd say that you reap what you sow, when it works against what you favor. We've built a bastion of corruption.

FWIW, the reason that Exxon has a lucrative business isn't because of lobbying efforts somehow creating false demand for what it sells. It's because it sells a product that the world depends on.

 

Yup. The audacity, lobbying to try to prevent people whose objective is to outlaw their business.

 

Somehow we have learned about the harmful health effects of tobacco anyhow. ... and long after that knowledge has been pretty well known, tens of millions of people a day in this country. ... choose to use tobacco products.

If only "Washington" had more coercive power.

 

Epidemiological studies showed a clear link between smoking and lung cancer since at least the 1940s.

Tobacco companies disputed the evidence (as you would expect). ... but by the 1960s really, the scientific evidence was so overwhelmingly clear that you had to been living under a rock if you smoked without knowing you were doing something harmful. Very conclusive studies were being published with regularity demonstrating that smokers were dying of lung cancer at a much higher rate than people who didn't smoke, and the popular press was reporting it.

The U.S. government didn't magically drag people from ignorance. A ton of evidence demonstrating the harm caused by smoking led to informed choices by more people. The tobacco industry couldn't credibly dispute the overwhelming evidence, and perceptions (and the corresponding use) of cigarettes changed accordingly.

Today? There are still tens of millions of people a day who choose to use tobacco in this country. Every single one of them knows that cigarettes are harmful. They make a choice.