The [Conserv]atives (2026)

JustWatch

From summer 2021 through Donald Trump's re-election campaign, four Republican insiders wage an uphill battle to transform their party's stance on climate change from within. A young grassroots organizer, a big-city mayor, an Iowa farmer, and an evangelical pastor — each embedded in different corners of the conservative ecosystem — risk alienation from their own communities as they attempt to reframe climate action as a conservative value.  As extreme weather intensifies and the 2024 election approaches, they confront a political machine built on denial, testing whether personal conviction can overcome tribal loyalty. This is a deeply personal story about the cost of defying your own side and the haunting question that drives them all: will their efforts be enough before time runs out?

Transcript

00:02Environmentalism used to be an issue that brought Republicans and Democrats together.

00:07We have passed new laws to protect the environment, but there is much yet to be done.

00:12This was not an issue that divided our politics.

00:15That started to change in the mid-90s.

00:18People on the left are all regulation, taxation, and litigation.

00:22People on the right are against regulation and they're against taxation,

00:25so you're caught in this gridlock.

00:27Burning of fossil fuels, anything that produces CO2.

00:32The right wanted to be the opponents of anything that the left put out there.

00:36You know what this is? It's a snowball.

00:38The stat about the 97% of scientists is based on one discredited study.

00:43NASA has quoted that study, I know that.

00:50Millions of Americans across this country have been wrongfully led to believe

00:54that there is only one side of the aisle that cares about the environment

00:58and that the other side does not.

01:00I'm a real conservative, true conservative. You're all rhinos.

01:04The tropical depression has formed in the central Caribbean this morning.

01:08I don't have the luxury of looking at these issues through a partisan prism

01:11because as a mayor, I'm expected to solve the problem.

01:14Right? When there's flooding, solve the problem, Mr. Mayor.

01:16I'm a paleoclimatologist. I study the wonder of God's creation.

01:22And what creation is telling us is that today we face some of the greatest environmental threats in human history.

01:30The storm called a derecho brought hurricane force winds of up to 130 miles an hour.

01:37Change is incremental. And sometimes we're way too impatient.

01:40But sometimes we need to be impatient because that's what gets things done.

01:44And I'm not a very patient person.

01:47Do you think climate really is changing?

01:48I know climate is changing.

01:50Do you think it's human caused at all?

01:52No, I don't.

01:53It was really fun trying to get conservatives to the table on the environment.

01:57It's not been fun trying to get them to do something about it.

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