Moderate Democrats (also liberals)

No argument on the danger of emissions, but on wastes, can't coal ash be disposed of as landfill?

Two distinct paths are emerging for Democrats to beat Donald Trump in 2020, each presenting different challenges—and perhaps demanding a different kind of nominee.

The paths are through the Rust Belt and Sun Belt battlegrounds, which both parties consider most likely to decide the next presidential contest. New state-level polling from Gallup signals that Democrats face very different equations in those two regions.

In the key Rust Belt states that Trump captured in 2016, his job-approval rating during 2018 was consistently worse than his national average among whites with and without a college degree, according to detailed figures provided to me by Gallup. This suggests that the most straightforward path for Democrats to recapture these states—particularly Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin—may be to find a nominee who can reassure white voters who are cooling on Trump.

In almost all the Sun Belt states that Democrats are hoping to contest, by contrast, Trump’s approval rating among both college- and non-college-educated white voters exceeds his national average, according to the same previously unpublished results. This suggests that to flip targets such as Arizona, Florida, and North Carolina, Democrats must find a nominee who can mobilize much greater turnout among those states’ large and growing populations of nonwhite voters.

But while the same message could prove equally effective in both regions of the country, it’s difficult to argue that the same candidate can deliver it as effectively to both audiences. Most analysts would probably agree that Amy Klobuchar, the senator from Minnesota; Joe Biden, the former vice president; and Sherrod Brown, the senator from Ohio, may be best positioned to reel in white midwestern voters already retreating from Trump. But each seems less likely to excite younger, nonwhite voters than others in the field, including Senators Kamala Harris of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey, both of whom are black; former San Antonio Mayor and federal housing official Julian Castro, who is Latino; and former Representative Beto O’Rourke of Texas, who showed an electric capacity to inspire younger audiences during his losing Senate bid against Republican Ted Cruz. Vermont’s Senator Bernie Sanders, though much older than those four, also has a record of energizing young people, including African Americans and Latinos.

The new Gallup data, based on more than 73,000 interviews conducted throughout 2018, highlight the clear differences between the opportunities—and challenges—Democrats face in the Rust Belt and Sun Belt. Gallup’s numbers, which track results among all adults, generally show Trump with a slightly poorer job-approval rating in these states than did the Edison Research exit poll conducted last fall among actual voters in the midterm elections. But the Gallup figures could be revealing of attitudes in the larger pool of Americans who usually vote in presidential elections.

In potentially competitive states in the Sun Belt and Rust Belt, Gallup found that Trump drew anemic support from nonwhite voters last year. In Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and North Carolina—all states where the minority population is primarily African American—no more than 17 percent of nonwhites approved of the president’s job performance. Trump rated slightly better among minority voters in Texas (22 percent approval), Florida (25 percent), and Arizona (28 percent), three states where the nonwhite population is primarily Hispanic.

But while Trump’s absolute approval ratings were lower among minority voters in the Rust Belt, it’s the Sun Belt where nonwhite voters likely offer greater opportunity to Democrats. The reason is that in the Rust Belt states, the minority populations are growing only slowly, while in the Sun Belt they’re growing more rapidly. In each of the Democrats’ target states except North Carolina, nonwhites are expected to comprise a majority of the state population under 30 by 2020, according to projections by the Brookings Institution demographer William Frey.

A logical response for Democrats might be to pick a 2020 ticket that combines one candidate best suited to reassure older whites cooling toward Trump with another best positioned to mobilize younger nonwhites who are more unreservedly hostile to him but less inclined to turn out. The new polling results signal that either path could beat Trump—but that neither is guaranteed to do so.

The central point here is that to sustain human life and eliminate emissions we're going to need nuclear power and a great deal of improved technology for "renewable" sources.

I just looked up danger of spent fuel rods. 10000 years. But not to worry
Our government is looking after them. The same government that can't keep our highways repaired for 100 years but thinks a stupid fence will stop drugs coming into the country. Keep watching fox propaganda.