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Re:US quits Paris climate pact by RcouF1uZ4gsC on Thursday June 01, 2017 @05:56PM (#14465233)
If the US was able to survive the loss of the Vietnam war and the Bay of Pigs where many people who bet their lives on the US died after being abandoned by them, the US will survive this as well and American credibility will be just fine in the long term.

Basically, the rest of the world will have to learn that getting the US to agree to something that is opposed by a significant group of Americans is a losing proposition. The fact that the Paris climate pact was not even submitted for ratification by the Senate, should tell you that there was significant opposition.

Re:US quits Paris climate pact by maxander on Thursday June 01, 2017 @06:02PM (#14465290)
Uh, the Paris accords are hugely popular in the U.S. [1]. The word is that even most corporations, oil companies among them, supported staying in the pact. Everyone was on board with this, except Trump and his far conservative base. And as long as power gets passed between groups with fundamentally different interests (or even basic notions of reality), no one will trust U.S. for basic security if they have half a choice.

[1] https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2017-06-...

Re:US quits Paris climate pact by sverige on Thursday June 01, 2017 @06:12PM (#14465365)
"Hugely popular" is an overstatement. "Everyone" excluding "Trump and his far conservative base" lost the election.

And part of Trump's message was that the U.S. shouldn't be the guarantor of the security of the rest of the world. That was a hugely popular proposition with his supporters.

Re:US quits Paris climate pact by rhcom2 on Thursday June 01, 2017 @06:26PM (#14465470)
I don't think "hugely popular" is an overstatement if the number is really nearly 70% in favor.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics...

Re:US quits Paris climate pact by sverige on Thursday June 01, 2017 @10:49PM (#14467069)
From the article,"An overwhelming majority of Democrats, 86 per cent, are fans of the deal, while only about 51 per cent of Republicans say the US should take part in the accord, the programme reported."

So, not 70% of his supporters, especially considering not all Republicans voted for him, and some Democrats did.

And the math is funny anyway. I haven't seen recent registration numbers, but last I looked, it was roughly 1/3 Democrat, 1/3 Republican, and 1/3 unaffiliated. It might be 40%, 30%, and 30%, not sure; the point is that I seriously doubt 70% of the people who voted for Trump support the Paris treaty, and certainly this article does not say that, though it tries very hard to imply it.

Re:US quits Paris climate pact by noobermin on Friday June 02, 2017 @04:43AM (#14468441)
The gov't of the US should represent its people, not just the side who won.
Re:US quits Paris climate pact by sverige on Friday June 02, 2017 @08:40AM (#14469395)
And the people of the U.S. should support their president, even if they didn't vote for him.
Re:US quits Paris climate pact by noobermin on Friday June 02, 2017 @11:44AM (#14470738)
Sorry, I'm not making or am swayed by emotive arguments, and no one should be. Nothing in the constitution or in established interpretation of it require citizens to support the president.
Re:US quits Paris climate pact by sverige on Friday June 02, 2017 @09:49PM (#14474510)
And nothing in the Constitution requires the president to follow popular opinion according to British papers. That's the job of some portion of the members of Congress.
Re:US quits Paris climate pact by maxander on Thursday June 01, 2017 @06:23PM (#14465447)
Remember, Trump lost the popular vote by a couple million, in an election where about half the country voted, so his base in general could be estimated at about a fourth to a fifth of the country. But if we take the "more than 5 to 1" figure from the linked article as valid, then it implies that even a bunch of people who voted for Trump liked the accord. My impression is that people didn't like Trump for policies having to do with the environment or climate change- they liked his stance on immigration and general outsider status.

The not-being-responsible-for-other-countries bit is also a popular policy of his (arguably, its his most widely-appealing position altogether), but I'm confused that you think that that applies to the Paris accord. The accord didn't mandate us giving anyone else anything, and climate change is going to mess the U.S. up as much as anywhere else.

Re:US quits Paris climate pact by sverige on Friday June 02, 2017 @09:52PM (#14474524)
If the Paris accord was so popular, there was plenty of time to ratify it the constitutional way before Trump was elected. Apparently it wasn't that popular. And not everyone believes climate change (f/k/a global warming) theory.
Re:US quits Paris climate pact by scarmig on Thursday June 01, 2017 @06:16PM (#14465409)
In other words, the rest of the world has to learn that it's pointless to make agreements with the United States that have any political implications. Or even agreements that have bipartisan support (see: NATO two years ago).

Which puts us in solid agreement, but you're foolish if you think this doesn't seriously advantage countries that are capable of maintaining agreements over the USA.

Re:US quits Paris climate pact by cirath on Thursday June 01, 2017 @06:55PM (#14465679)
> If the US was able to survive the loss of the Vietnam war and the Bay of Pigs where many people who bet their lives on the US died after being abandoned by them, the US will survive this as well and American credibility will be just fine in the long term.

That isn't a hypothesis you want to stress-test, though. "My reputation survived the last great gaffe, therefore it will survive the next one" is a very poor long term gamble.

Re:US quits Paris climate pact by graeme on Thursday June 01, 2017 @06:26PM (#14465471)
The US didn't exactly abandon its allied in South Vietnam: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Frequent_Wind#Result...

It lost the war, but that's not the same thing as just walking away frivolously, on whim.