This was a test – and Republicans have failed it

Lorraine Evanoff | 10:30 am EDT September 29, 2021

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Standardized tests like the SAT, ACT and even the LSAT favor wealthy white test takers and are not a good predictor of how a student will perform. According to the National Education Association, standardized tests have racists roots going back 100 years. How students score on these tests has an impact on their future. When it comes to tests of humanity’s survival, common sense can be a great predictor. In this case, the GOP is an epic failure.

Scientists have been warning of the fall-out from climate change for decades. Many of the catastrophic weather events predicted decades ago have already begun. Pandemics such as COVID are worsened by climate change. The risk of infectious diseases increases as animals migrate to get out of the heat or away from lost habitat and increasingly come into contact with humans. Climate change has already increased the spread of infectious disease such as Lyme disease and waterborne and mosquito-borne diseases. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions helps limit the risk of infectious diseases. Less demand for animal meat and more sustainable animal husbandry would lower greenhouse gases.

And yet, the GOP has led the fight against efforts to move away from our dependence on fossil fuels and toward cleaner energy. Now they have adopted the anti-common sense, anti-vaccination movement into their platform. A new study shows that COVID has wiped out years of progress on life expectancy, with the biggest decline among males in the U.S. by 2.2 years relative to 2019 levels. If COVID was a test to see how humans would survive a catastrophic global pandemic, Republicans have failed.

Lorraine Evanoff

Chicago native Lorraine Evanoff earned her degree in French from DePaul University then became a Certified Financial Manager. She worked as a finance exec in film production for seven years in Paris, then in Silicon Valley during the dot-com era, and later for various Hollywood production companies, notably as CFO of National Lampoon. She is currently living in Los Angeles with her husband.