It's been all over the news lately, partially digested, often spiced up with a double dose of spin, but what is the Green New Deal?
Here it is, in its entirety. It's only 14 pages, not a tough read.
Does it sound radical? Sure it does - to a world in which the survival of human civilization is being treated as a dangerously radical notion.
Check it out.
Too bad Pelosi is so withering in her dismissal of it, Mound.
ReplyDeleteExpecting Democrats and Republicans to offer anything radically different is!!
ReplyDeletewell it's just not going to happen.
Let's not lose sight of the USA has a bought and paid for government no matter the party.
TB
I think AOC is the Sarah Palin of the Left. Too gaffe-prone. Discredits her cause. Plus she's a hippy revolutionary who believes America can be turned into Sweden on a single election. It takes time, hard-work and gravitas to move the Overton Window.
ReplyDeleteJill Stein ran on a Green New Deal in the 2016 election as leader of the Green party. She knew what she was talking about. Of course, she's a Harvard medical doctor with a lot of experience.
The most sensible, honest and effective progressive-leader of the Democrat party is Tusli Gabbard. She really represents the next generation. Better than Bernie. Unsullied unlike Elizabeth Warren. Not a phony representing the old neoliberal order like Kamala Harris.
Here's a good piece on her from Kyle Kulinski who co-founded the Justice Democrats (AOC being the most prominent member.)
Secular Talk: Tulsi Gabbard Pulls Zero Punches In 2020 Launch Speech
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTHwOCDEDmc
I agree, Lorne. Pelosi did America no good with her "my way or the doorway" spiel.
ReplyDeleteAnon makes an interesting argument only he sees this Green New Deal as something to be implemented over time, incrementally.
The hard fact is there is no window of two or three decades to achieve the reforms AOC is advocating. That, sadly, and it is saddening, makes these "baby steps" arguments basically nihilistic. If anything, this is "Hail Mary pass" time.
TB, I know you're right.
ReplyDeleteCheck out Tulsi Gabbard's website. She's not about taking baby steps. She's about taking very significant action.
ReplyDeleteThe Clintons and Obama were "baby steps" kinda politicians. A public pretense of action while privately representing the donor class.
My impression is that global-warming alarmists don't understand how fast the economy adapts and tranforms to new environments. The market place is very fickle which makes businesses very adaptable.
We have 20 to 30 years to get emissions down to zero (the Leap Manifesto objective.) Which means we have a number of years to make the right kind of policy decisions to make business adapt. (Call it REAL supply-side economics.)
It's easily and sensibly doable – like how FDR whipped the Robber Barons and post-war economy into shape. (And Theodore Roosevelt before him.) Real moderation is the key. (Free-trade, e.g., is a "far right" ideology on the economic spectrum. Nothing moderate about it at all.)
If you have revolutionaries vs. ultra-conservatives, you'll be too busy fighting political warfare to get anything done. The ultra-cons will dig in deeper. The revolutionaries will get more fanatical.
Instead of a pendulum swing that ratchets up progress, you get a back-and-forth that goes nowhere. (Or breaks down into war.)
If you take the market and the oligarchy head on, they will bowl you over like a force of Nature. But if you make the right plays, you can shape the direction it's moving.
Like "souring the milk." You want make to make something attractive less and less desirable one piece of legislation at a time. Progressively. Developmentally.
Eventually they say "screw it" and get with the program – as the costs begin to outweigh the benefits. That's how they operate.
The corporations – and the High Born who own them – are heedless self-interest. Like a force of Nature. They will work slaves to a very-early death if that's the right price point – and if they can get away with it.
ReplyDeleteThey will also bail on dirty-energy if they see the writing on the wall – and laugh at the suckers who lose their shirts.
Ultimately, all this is a very powerful force of Nature we have to learn to harness. Or the Beast will kill us all.
The Grand Generation got it done. And the Grand Generation before them. We can get it done.
Looks like Hollywood meatpuppets are ga-ga over AOC's Green New Deal!
ReplyDeleteFinally they have something intelligent to say other than some variation of "Orange Man Bad."
This could actually move the Overton Window. Raise awareness of policy alternatives and corruption in politics. (I.e., politicians representing the donor class over the interests of the people.)
My guess is that their bosses are using them to blow stink on Trump, and are not going to be happy hearing them call for a Green New Deal!
They were actually hoping to pull free-trade globalization out of the frying pan. Justice Democrats like AOC, on the other hand, want to go much further than Tariff Man on fair-trade globalization!
BTW, Trump is absolutely right to double-down on dirty energy. How? He's representing the people who elected him. HRC, aka the Fracking Queen, doubled-down on dirty-energy against the wishes of her base.
Democracy is about building support for issues and winning over a majority of people to support them. Build super-majority support, and you have an institution.
Democracy works when you have politicians representing the people. The people are generally good. The High Born are generally rotten.
Looks like I was wrong about AOC discrediting her cause!