The best part of the «joshing» comes when Rorty, who is a professor at a state university, goes on to distinguish slyly
between the liberal intellectuals who are playing this game and the taxpayers, incapable of liberal ironism, who are paying them to play it.
It was a cultural clash between an elite and much of the public,
between liberal intellectuals and the Obama administration on the one hand and the mass of Tea party activists on the other.
Already, deep fissures are emerging
between, on one side, a base of ideological voters and lawmakers with strong ties to powerful tea - party groups and super PACs funded by the fossil - fuel industry who see climate change as a false threat concocted by
liberals to justify greater government control; and on the other side, a quiet group of moderates, younger voters, and leading conservative
intellectuals who fear that if Republicans continue to dismiss or deny climate change, the party will become irrelevant.