The Republican Party has a secret weapon for 2020. It’s especially effective because it’s stealthy: The Democrats seem oblivious to its power. And the GOP needn’t lift a finger for it to work. All Republicans have to do is sit back and watch 29-year-old Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez . . . exist.
AOC, as she’s better known, today exists largely in front of the cameras. In a few months, she’s gone from an unknown New York bartender to the democratic socialist darling of the left and its media hordes.
Her megaphone is so loud that she rivals Speaker Nancy Pelosi as the face of the Democratic Party. Republicans don’t know whether to applaud or laugh. Most do both.
For them, what’s not to love? She’s set off a fratricidal war on the left, with her chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti, this week slamming the “radical conservatives” among the Democrats holding the party “hostage.”
She’s made friends with Jeremy Corbyn, leader of Britain’s Labour Party, who has been accused of anti-Semitism.
She’s called the American system of wealth creation “immoral” and believes the government has a duty to provide “economic security” to people who are “unwilling to work.” As a representative of New York, she’s making California look sensible.
On Thursday Ms. Ocasio-Cortez unveiled her vaunted Green New Deal, complete with the details of how Democrats plan to reach climate nirvana in a mere 10 years.
It came in the form of a resolution, sponsored in the Senate by Massachusetts’ Edward Markey, on which AOC is determined to force a full House vote.
That means every Democrat in Washington will get to go on the record in favor of abolishing air travel, outlawing steaks, forcing all American homeowners to retrofit their houses, putting every miner, oil rigger, livestock rancher and gas-station attendant out of a job, and spending trillions and trillions more tax money.
Oh, also for government-run health care, which is somehow a prerequisite for a clean economy.
It’s a GOP dream, especially because the media presented her plan with a straight face—as a legitimate proposal from a legitimate leader in the Democratic Party.
Republicans are thrilled to treat it that way in the march to 2020, as their set-piece example of what Democrats would do to the economy and average Americans if given control.
The Green New Deal encapsulates everything Americans fear from government, all in one bonkers resolution.
It is for starters, a massive plan for the government to take over and micromanage much the economy.
Take the central plank, its diktat of producing 100% of U.S. electricity “through clean, renewable, and zero-emission energy sources” by 2030.
As Ron Bailey at Reason has noted, a 2015 plan from Stanford envisioning the goal called for the installation of 154,000 offshore wind turbines, 335,000 onshore wind turbines, 75 million residential photovoltaic (solar) systems, 2.75 million commercial solar systems, and 46,000 utility-scale solar facilities.
AOC has been clear it will be the government building all this, not the private sector.
And that might be the easy part. According to an accompanying fact sheet, the Green New Deal would also get rid of combustion engines, “build charging stations everywhere,” “upgrade or replace every building in the U.S.,” do the same with all “infrastructure,” and crisscross the nation with “high-speed rail.”
Buried in the details, the Green New Deal also promises government control of the most fundamental aspects of private life.
The fact sheet explains why the resolution doesn’t call for “banning fossil fuels” or for “zero” emissions across the entire economy—at least at first.
It’s because “we aren’t sure that we’ll be able to fully get rid of farting cows and airplanes that fast” (emphasis mine).
This is an acknowledgment that planes don’t run on anything but fossil fuel. No jet fuel, no trips to see granny.
It’s also an acknowledgment that livestock produces methane, which has led climate alarmists to engage in “meatless Mondays.”
AOC may not prove able to eradicate “fully” every family Christmas or strip of bacon in a decade, but that’s the goal. […]
At least some Democrats seem to be aware of what a danger this is, which is why Ms. Pelosi threw some cold water on the Green New Deal this week.
They should be scared. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez is a freight train gaining speed by the day—and helping Republicans with every passing minute.
h/t GWPF
Read more at WSJ
Funny how the race baiting ,gender political Democrats need to have the old white boys in the background to promote and legitimatize themselves .
Of course they are the ones after all to fund the auditioning mouth piece .
Kimberley Strassel is the premier writer at the WSJ IMO .
It seems the 3 alt-left loons are auditioning for their Super PAC masters
to see if they can catch some wind . Bernie and Hillary are saving their ammo because they know that all three of these virtue signalers are just too far off the left wing chart .
Threatening workers and whole industries to pretend to set the earth’s temperature is a strategy of a loser .
In your lists of all the wind turbines and solar panels you provided you forgot the other requirement–the vast numbers of battery farms needed to supply electricity when the wind isn’t blowing or sun isn’t shining. These are needed to make sure that we have electricity then. I cannot even imagine the capacity of battery power needed but it would have to be vast (imagine providing enough electricity for survival during that last polar vortex?) And where would these batteries and all the rare earth metals needed for them as well as the wind turbines and solar panels come from?
I’ll say this about AOC–she’s the gift that keeps on giving.
Battery backup for when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow isn’t feasible. Southern Australia’s $50 million battery only had enough capacity to run their power grid for a few minutes. The closest solution to reality is a massive artificial hydroelectric system where water was pumped from a lower reservoir to a higher one when renewable power was available and then used to generate power when needed. However, like all of the other crazy ideas of the environmentalist such as system would have to be so large it would be unaffordable. It will also have a large environmental impact, and in some places the replacing the evaporating water would strain the availability of that resource. There is one realistic solution. Make long and frequent power outages a routine part of our lives.
Wadda Marroon! Actually Alexandria Orcasio-Cortez, AGW = Al Gore’s Wrong! Since oil and fossil fuels are used by everyone everywhere, for everything (even GREEN Energy can not exist without oil/fossil fuels) and since North America is not only World Class Regulated and actually a Carbon Sink with our forests and vegetation taking in MORE CO2 than we produces (so in fact we should get a Carbon Credit and never a Carbon Tax!) and since oil and fossil fuels are the cure and not a curse at all and since NONE of any foreign lobbyist, Leftist Government nor local Protestor ever actually walks their talk and stops benefiting from oil and fossil fuels to confirm their commitment, I agree that protestors be picked up, bused to a cold field in Winter and educated… naked?
The Government must issue 2 cards, #1 I support Oil and Fossil Fuels, or #2 I do NOT support Oil and Fossil Fuels. But in order to get or use ANYTHING touched by Oil and Fossil Fuels, they will need a SIGNED #1 Card! That will silence the eco-hypocrites!
What card is in YOUR Wallet AOC? Jerry Brown? Mr Sotero? Nancy Peloser? Chucky Sleeze? Al Gore the Climate Whore?
Let’s base Policies on Measurable REALITY, not a failed Leftist Agenda! If you can’t, then we will have to keep electing a better Trump-like Governments for North America with 30% of the World’s Oil and Fossil Fuel Resources!
We will NEVER get to the Jetsons, by restricting the World to the Energy Capabilities of the Flintstones (And and Solar)! Trump understands, but why are the Left still lying about it?
AOC go plant a Tree!!!
I said it before, AO-C is a bigger threat to the Democrats than to you and me. Will there be a changing of the guard? Will there be a generational split, a spin – off? “American Gothic” Nancy and Chuck have a fox in their hen house.
Before America could reach AO-C ‘s Green nirvana, it would need to survive a total financial collapse.
Try to completely rebuild the USA using the barter method.
It won’t happen, but the whole Climate Change / carbon tax scam will be exposed for what it is. For the Left to continue buying votes, they’ll need more revenue to pay the interest on the “free stuff” they’ve already dished out. Has anyone noticed that our economies have become less tolerant of “historical” interest rates? There’s enough debt to fill the oceans, and Western democracies are on the hook for too much of it.
The last election promise I expect to hear from liberals is fiscal restraint from them and personal sacrifice from the electorate. For energy taxes to pay the credit card bill, energy must be consumed.