goop 📈 gop 📉

It’s the Willow Project, stupid.

No, it’s not the code name of some new, untitled Willow Smith sitcom. It’s actually something much, much worse. If you haven’t heard, the Willow Project is a controversial oil and gas drilling project on public lands in Alaska that was first approved by our now-indicted former president in 2020.

In general, anything approved by the Trump Administration probably isn’t the brightest of ideas, especially when it comes to the environment. The project has faced legal challenges from environmental groups, who claim that the greenhouse gas emissions from the drilling will affect the survival of the ice-dependent species in the region. Haven’t the polar bears been through enough!?!

Data for Progress and Fossil Free Media find 56 percent of voters prefer energy projects on federal lands to be clean energy projects, such as wind turbines or solar power farms, something the Willow project decidedly is not.

Voters clearly support transitioning to clean energy projects on public lands, and the Willow Project is an unfortunate step backwards towards oil and gas drilling. Quite frankly Joe, you kinda gaslit us and this is why we have trust issues. If you keep this up and approve more oil and gas drilling projects, the federal government can foot our therapy bill.

Read the full blog and polling here.

Here are some other highlights from DFP this week:

The Earth is gonna die, wrapped in plastic.

As a society, we’re really making an effort to use less plastic. Straws are cardboard and essentially useless, but we’ve resigned ourselves to that fate. Water bottle caps got much smaller one day, which we don’t mind, we love a short king. And god forbid you leave your house without your reusable shopping bags.

But is it enough to actually combat plastic pollution? Voters don’t quite think so. Data for Progress finds 78 percent of voters are concerned about the impact of plastic pollution on the environment, including 87 percent of Democrats, 81 percent of Independents, and 67 percent of Republicans.

We can say no thanks to plastic forks and knives on UberEats all we want, but Big Plastic is still out there, poisoning our planet one lid at a time. When asked who could have the most impact on addressing plastic pollution, a plurality of voters (41 percent) choose the plastics industry. Only 18 percent of voters chose the federal government and 13 percent selected the recycling industry.

Plastic pollution majorly affects our health and the well-being of the environment, and we don’t know about your health, but the environment is not doing too hot as it is. The plastic industry needs to look in the mirror, realize they’re the problem (hi, it’s me), and hold themselves accountable. Otherwise we’ll spam their emails with pictures of sea turtles trapped in six-pack rings.

Check out the polling here.

Have another mimosa, drag brunch is on Chuck Schumer.

When Republicans aren’t busy giving guns more rights than people who can get pregnant, they’ve been targeting the trans and queer community in an onslaught of dangerous legislation. More than 430 bills aimed at reducing the rights of LGBTQ+ Americans have been introduced in state legislatures, and governors like criminal pudding offender Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott have continued to spread harmful messages that promote anti-trans hate.

Even though Republican politicians are willing to die on their transphobic hill, even Republican voters think the attacks on the queer community are getting a little desperate. Data for Progress finds 64 percent of voters think the amount of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation is excessive political theater, including 72% of Democrats, 65% of Independents, and 55% of Republicans.

Republicans are using the queer community as a wedge issue to energize and anger the far-right. It’s incredibly dangerous, and Data for Progress finds 56 percent of likely Democratic voters believe the Democratic Party needs to do more to protect the rights of queer and trans Americans. This includes 54 percent of Democrats and 63 percent of Independents.

The Democratic Party has a large platform that it can use to spread awareness and educate people about trans rights. Our polling finds that 69 percent of voters who know a trans person believe increased visibility and rights of trans people have made society better. With more education and engagement, people will better understand why these Republican attacks are pure propaganda. And since only 24 percent of voters have seen drag in person, obviously the first step should be a Democratic Party-sponsored bottomless drag brunch.

Read the full blog and polling here.