Puppet Masters
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announced this resolution with Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Ed Marky and a bevy of supporting congressmen.
One wonders if anyone actually read it.
One section says that in the spirit of democracy that only people from "frontline and vulnerable communities and workers" will "plan, run and administer" all of these massive green deal programs.
Just as Mao's Cultural Revolution empowered students over their parents, so this bill sets up identity politics groups as having power over the major sectors of the economy. It even calls for a national "mobilization, "as Mao did.
Referencing historical discrimination, this bill in effect does away with one person one vote, or democracy as we know it, since in this resolution, redress of the past requires that only these designated groups would have a say in running this plan, whose administration would in effect be the domestic policy of the country.
Even more puzzling is that six Democratic candidates for president have given support to this effort. Most Americans oppose even a modest increase in the gasoline tax, let alone virtual destruction of the oil, natural gas and coal industries. That's a $136 billion dollar industry employing about 10 million people. After mandating the "100 percent" end of these industries as part of the mobilization, the resolution calls for a guaranteed job for all Americans and economic security even for those "unwilling" to work.
It mandates that every building in America will be upgraded. It's unclear in this legislative framework who would pay for incalculable costs of such a program because no one could ever possibly pay for it. No tax on the rich would ever generate enough to first eliminate our energy industry, including clean natural gas, replace it with technologies that are not yet ready and then provide a guaranteed job for everyone, with full benefits, regardless of employability. Don't worry, though, "low tech" solutions to remove carbon dioxide will be encouraged.
The demand for justice on the basis of climate change is upside down. The energy revolution did not cause the oppression of the frontline and vulnerable communities. Quite the opposite, it was at the core of the democratization of technology as Thomas Edison's invention of the light bulb was not limited to the few but became universal to every household.
The moderately priced car created by Henry Ford helped create the middle class and later provided the near-universal mobility that enabled people to live in the suburbs and commute to work. While the oil industry was broken up to create greater competition, these energy driven inventions were at the center of transforming American life for everyone.
Air travel is out under this deal as well, to be replaced by high-speed trains. Yea. Right. Amtrak to California.
The very premise that America is the carbon fiend that needs to mobilize to this degree on its own is faulty as well. Carbon emissions from America have been declining, down 2.7 percent in 2016. Since 2011, carbon emissions from large power plants in the U.S. have declined by nearly 20 percent.
The two most populous countries on earth -- India and China -- both looking to move more and more millions of people to the middle class, are ground zero for the explosion of future carbon emissions. We need to develop affordable energy technologies that could be deployed to bring these developing countries into line.
This plan is really a nifty piece of marketing to use the environment as a Trojan horse to justify socialism in America. It is not a serious plan to deal with the global issue of climate change in the world. Rather than advance the cause of climate change, this legislation could prove more of an easy target for Republicans to discredit the Democrats, who just won over moderate suburban voters in the last election. While many in polls may support something called the "green deal," few Americans will support the details of this legislation once examined and explained.
It's not the platform of the Democratic Party and it's up to the leadership of the party to back realistic proposals for a better future, not bumper stickers.
Failure to heed this warning could well lead to another surprise upset at the polls.
Reader Comments
Not all those influences by marxism are actual socialists, see Iceland, Finland, Norway, Denmark... those are all capitalist countries. And that is precisely the model that is being proposed by politicians like Sanders, Gabbard, Cortez and keeps getting smeard as "far left", "socialist" and "communist" all the time. People who do that are shooting themselves in the feet. Unless they happen to be billionaires.
Social class is an issue. Marx brought that awareness, the awareness tha social classes do exist and that we all belong to one. Merely recognizing that is a proof that someone is infulenced by the marxist line of thought, however one does not necessarily need to embrace revolution, or socialism. In fact, the overwhelming majority of left-wingers are social-democrats. There is no reason to resurrect the mccarthyist paranoia, that is low.. no need for witch hunts. And witch hunt is what we see, starting from the stupid title of this article. Every thing Ocasio-Cortes has said, done or supported so far is social-democracy. Never at one moment she called for anything close to revolution.. still, keeps getting called "far left" all the time. Low info, witch hund appealing to people's reptilian brain - that is particularly common in churches where they are used to manipulating people with the fear of Satan. Just replace Satan with an imaginary communist threat and there you go...
Why again is a run of the mill SOCIAL-DEMOCRAT the likes of which there are plenty in other parts of the world, where they are widely regarded as moderates and classified as center-left suddenly becomes "FAR-LEFT" in the USA?
Why do people like Ted Cruz who has repeatedly stated that the Bible is above the Constitution doesn't get branded far right? Siding with the KKK, with white nationalists, starting an ilegal war in Iraq to appease the evangelical voters who need that war to see their prophecies "come true" and their Jesus "come back" so that they can get in heaven.... not of that is worthy of the title "far right".
But if you are in favor of common sense proposes such as universal healthcare [ almost every other developed nation has one version of another of it, except Murica ], ending the wars and strenghtening the social security network all of the sudden you see that word: far, too far.
And those disastrous job killing agendas are only disastrous job killing agendas on Fox News and right-wing outlets. Look at Finland, Netherlands, Norway.. even neighboring Canada who is doing much better than the USA economically. Are those countries in poverty? lacking inovation? quite the contrary!! The country that is sinking into an abyss since is the US of A, since Reagan and his disastrous policies.
However, my beef with the idea is cost. I do not see how you can do this type of dramatic turn in infrastructure within a time period with cost not coming into the discussion as a real inhibitor.
There was a post I agreed with and that was instead of trying to fix everything create the legislation that enables the Green policy to take effect within new constructions rather than trying to reestablish all current buildings and infrastructure. I would like to see how this would go in the inner cities.
There is radical change then there is radical change using logic and reasoning. This type of policy could work without the radical desperate performance AOL is trying to push.
This is one of the great myths of the Left, like so many others, with no basis in fact. For the real history of how the New Deal was managed, and for whose benefit, see "Wall Street and FDR" by Antony Sutton and "The Roosevelt Myth" by John T. Flynn. Both are available online.
Another stooge picked from the general polulation and handed a script...Just like tradition.
How is someone born in 1990 supposed to make ANY decisions for anything!!?And I don't trust people who you can see their gums regularly and have pop-out eyes. Hillary has the horse mouth, too.
Another stooge picked from the general polulation and handed a script...Just like tradition.
Now Tulsi, she looks good!
And no one can talk as a horse of course
That is, of course, unless the horse is the famous bitch Cortez