Letters to the Editor: Is Elon Musk’s Twitter mess a genius ploy to get Republicans into EVs?
To the editor: You write, “Republicans are much less likely than Democrats to consider buying an EV.” That’s true. And no amount of evidence is going to persuade them otherwise. It’s tribalism. (“Can California’s electric-vehicle push overcome the red-state backlash?” Dec. 12)
But, but, what if some extremely prominent symbol of the electric car industry became a right-wing hero by, say, taking over a major social media site and spouting all the things the Republican tribe loves to hear?
Might that not change the tribalism equation? Might that not make it cool for Republicans to “own the libs” by buying at least that figure’s brand of EV?
If Twitter owner (and Tesla chief executive) Elon Musk is as smart as some people say, maybe he’s just doing what needs to be done to save the environment. (And perhaps he’s running Twitter into the ground also as a public service, this one to the political environment.)
Barry Carlton, El Cajon
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To the editor: If you look back to the early 1900s when the transition from horse and buggy to gasoline cars was occurring, the resistance back then was largely that jobs would be lost. And it’s no different today during our transition from polluting gasoline-powered transportation to zero-emission vehicles.
But the issue is so much larger than jobs lost or a feeling that mandating cleaner transportation represents an attack on freedom. We are in the midst of a climate change emergency, and we have no time to lose.
Anyone who lives on the Gulf Coast can attest to the fact that violent storms are getting worse. Californians and people in nearby states can speak of dropping water tables, drier winters and drought. Fossil-fueled transportation is partly responsible for those disasters.
We’ve got to look past our own habitual employment concerns and step bravely forward to save humanity’s very existence on this storm-ridden and drought-plagued Earth. Because the status quo is not going to save us, our children or our grandchildren.
Linda Nicholes, Huntington Beach
