Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the surprise winner of the NY-14 Primary upset has just proven that the problem with establishment Democrats is they just aren’t committed enough.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Is the Climate Change Hardliner the Planet Needs
Becky Ferreira
Jun 28 2018, 1:01amOcasio-Cortez upset the NY-14 primary with a progressive agenda that included transitioning the US to renewables by 2035.
Progressive challenger Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won the Democratic primary in New York’s 14th district (Bronx/Queens) on Tuesday, beating out her incumbent opponent Joe Crowley, who has been a member of Congress since 1999. The victory was a surprising upset and a key victory for progressives, who are eager to pull the Democratic Party left in spite of hand-wringing from its current moderate leadership.
“This is the start of a movement,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted in response to her win. “Thank you all.”
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Cleverly branding her plan to confront climate change as “a Green New Deal,” Ocasio-Cortez set an ambitious goal to fully transition the United States to renewable energy sources by 2035. Crucially, she spotlighted the economic and social justice impacts of climate change, and warned of the “worldwide refugee crisis” that will result from continuing to marginalize the issue.
“Right now, the economy is controlled by big corporations whose profits are dependent on the continuation of climate change,” her platform reads. “This arrangement benefits few, but comes at the detriment of our planet and all its inhabitants.”
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From Alexandria’s campaign website;
Mobilizing Against Climate Change
In order to address runaway global climate change, Alexandria strongly supports transitioning the United States to a carbon-free, 100% renewable energy system and a fully modernized electrical grid by 2035. She believes renewable fuels must be produced in a way that achieves our environmental and energy security goals, so we can move beyond oil responsibly in the fight against climate change. By encouraging the electrification of vehicles, sustainable home heating, distributed rooftop solar generation, and the conversion of the power grid to zero-emissions energy sources, Alexandria believes we can be 100% free of fossil fuels by 2035.
Furthermore, Alex believes in recognizing the relationship between economic stability and environmental sustainability. It’s time to shift course and implement a Green New Deal – a transformation that implements structural changes to our political and financial systems in order to alter the trajectory of our environment. Right now, the economy is controlled by big corporations whose profits are dependent on the continuation of climate change. This arrangement benefits few, but comes at the detriment of our planet and all its inhabitants. Its effects are life-threatening, and are especially already felt by low-income communities, both in the U.S. and globally. Even in NY-14, areas like Throgs Neck, College Point, and City Island are being affected by erosion and rising sea levels. Rather than continue a dependency on this system that posits climate change as inherent to economic life, the Green New Deal believes that radically addressing climate change is a potential path towards a more equitable economy with increased employment and widespread financial security for all.
Climate change is the single biggest national security threat for the United States and the single biggest threat to worldwide industrialized civilization, and the effects of warming can be hard to predict and self-reinforcing. We need to avoid a worldwide refugee crisis by waging a war for climate justice through the mobilization of our population and our government. This starts with the United States being a leader on the actions we take both globally and locally.
Read more: https://ocasio2018.com/issues#mobilizing-against-climate-change
I agree with Alexandria that the current Democrat leadership, whoever they are at this point in time, don’t seem to be taking climate change seriously.
Imagine for a moment that you truly believed anthropogenic global warming was an imminent deadly threat. If climate change really was an existential crisis, it simply wouldn’t make sense to campaign for or support the adoption of half measures. If you truly believed the future of your children depended on giving up your car, that your kids would all die if you and your neighbours continued to use fossil fuels, wouldn’t you demand everyone immediately give up their car? Wouldn’t you feel anger and frustration towards the self serving complacency of establishment politicians who kept trying to buy you off by offering tiny upward increments to their unambitious renewable targets?
The obvious explanation for mainstream Democrat moderation on climate issues is that most Democrat establishment politicians don’t really believe climate change is a serious issue. They offer a few token measures to win the votes of climate believers, while trying to avoid frightening off rich industrialists who are attracted to some of their other policies.
But hardcore climate fanatics aren’t complete fools. They might be wrong about climate change, but people know when they are just being used by politicians who don’t really care about their concerns.
It was inevitable that someone like Alexandria would arise – a true believer, someone who speaks to the hearts of fellow climate true believers, people who are fed up with being lied to and betrayed by the establishment.
Jacinda Ardern (New Zealand Prime Minister) = free stuff + fight climate change.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez = free stuff + fight climate change.
See ya I’m going into politics; too easy . . .
Well, she’s just popped out a baby, so most NZ’ers will be teary-eyed and smitten by Ardern’s “mirracle” that NZ’ers won’t care for the extra they have to pay to save the planet, just that little New Zealand, bit of the planet. The rest of the world will continue to warm, apparently. Oh! And the free stuff that will be funded by taxes….oh wait, that is proven to NEVER work! D’oh!
While an very interesting outcome, actually far worse for Democrats than Republicans, it does show that socialists are more than a passing fad. However, there are 700K people in the NY 14th Congressional district. Only 27K voted in the Democratic Primary and Ocasio-Cortez got less than 16 thousand votes. Apparently she is a supposedly educated as a microbiologist. She was endorsed and financially supported by a whose who of far left moneyed NGOs, e.g., MoveOn.org, Black Lives Matter, etc. She claims not to take money from corporations. Which I assume means not directly from corporations but only when washed through groups like MoveOn.org. I guess Soros doesn’t doesn’t count as an evil capitalist. She fundamentally is beating the same drum, playing to the same old bases as any other Leftist Democrat. The 14th District apparently is much younger and even more Hispanic (50%) than just a decade ago. This should send a bit of a shock through the NY City and state Democratic establishment. The question is whether the establishment Democrats counter or move in farther left. Right now what National Democratic leaders are saying is that Ocasio-Cortez’s primary win means nothing.
Who said she’s a microbiologist? She studied economics (!) and business (!!) at Boston U, before going to work as a bartender:
http://www.businessinsider.com/all-about-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-who-beat-crowley-in-ny-dem-primary-2018-6#less-than-one-year-ago-she-was-still-working-as-a-bartender-in-new-york-4
She’s a culinary curiousity a
“nutty watermelon”.
You can’t fight every battle, and this one was a lost cause from the start (demographically).
“never interrupt your enemy while they are making a mistake”
‘specially if they don’t know it.
Sometimes you feel a little sorry for them.
I think she would be much happier in Venezuela. Completely unhinged.
President Trump wins again, Greenshirt fanatics are ripe for the fall.
It’ll be interesting to see how well Jared Polis, the Dem running for governor of Colorado fares. He has pretty much the same renewable energy goals as Alexandria.
On a more personal side, he is rearing two little boys along with his husband.
All of these outrageous Trump teeets and speeches have the designed purpose of driving the Democrat party left before the midterms. I don’t care for it myself, but Trump lives under their skin and brings out their latent lunacy, and he knows it.
I’ve always been puzzled by people, on both sides of the isle, who think that the opposition president is some kind of idiot. They never are.
Trump is no idiot and as long as the ‘Resisters’ believe it, he’s going to have his way with them. Democrats just knocked off a formidable opponent.
GWB is far from an idiot, also, just an inarticulate speaker. Naturally the partisan press didn’t let a single “Bushism” go unreported during his terms.
Somebody put together a montage of Obama speaking off the cuff.
When he wasn’t reading someone else’s words, the man was an idiot.
Used to agree with you, but over the years I have seen GW make more and more inconsistent and ignirant moves.
His refusal to even try to seriously critique Obama’s destructive hsrmful policies, his willingness to go after Trump, his family breaking their word and not supporting the 2016 nominee.
This idea that one must support Trump in order to be on the right team is crazy to me. I was absolutely, vociferoulsy, against Trump during the nomination process, and was convinced that he was simply a wolf in sheep’s clothing. To me, Bush’s refusal to support was a credit to him. And frankly, I still stand by the rationale I used to make that decision at the time. He had all the hallmarks of a snake oil salesman and a chronic narcissist, and I will defend anyone who came to the same conclusion.
That Trump has managed to accomplish what he has is an incredibly pleasant surprise to me. And in as much as he continues to work towards things that I value, I will absolutely support him. This does NOT mean that I will avoid criticizing him.
In fact, I’m amazed that some people have apparently made criticizing him the same as being unpatriotic! Since when do we owe allegiance to a man?!? Pathetic. He’s no messiah. He’s just a brash, broken, faulty human like the rest of us. He will continue to make dumb, banal, mistakes that should be pointed out by the free citizens of this country. (Note: we’re “CITIZENS”, not “subjects”…there’s no “long live the king” required here!) We can all hope, that just like every other president before him, his successes will outnumber, or outweigh, his mistakes. Nothing more is required.
Respectfully,
rip
Trump has his personal idiosyncracies (as do we all), none of which are criminal, but he is not a wolf in sheep’s clothing. He is sincere about Making America Great Again, and is doing a pretty good job of it.
I agree, if he makes mistakes he should be held accountable, but as far as I can see, he has made very few mistakes to this point.
I think we all got very lucky on Nov. 8, 2016.
Minor nit
aisle is something you walk down
isle is something you find in the tropics with lots of coconut trees.
She is a hardcore socialist.
Here is her campaign platform:
https://twitter.com/JStein_WaPo/status/1011786860107059201/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.businessinsider.com%2Fall-about-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-who-beat-crowley-in-ny-dem-primary-2018-6
Totalitarianism. Democracy is always one election away from it.
She’s likable, but she’s such a young, naive candidate. There is ZERO chance of totally renewable energy by 2035 or even 2085 unless some new form of renewable energy is discovered. You could have solar panels plastering half the country and still it is not enough. Paraphrasing President John Adams: If you’re not a liberal when you’re young you have no heart, but if you’re not a conservative when you are older you have no brain.
Wasn’t that Clemanceau?
Maybe Dizzie said it before him, but I kind of doubt it.
widely attributed to churchill but socialism, not liberlalism
If you don’t vote Socialist/Communist before you are twenty, you have no heart – if you do vote Socialist/Communist after you are twenty, you have no head.
Georges Clemenceau
Which is why we need to raise the voting age to 25.
It is very interesting that Alexandria took out Nancy Peloci’s far left challenger by being even more left wing. The ideological divide is becoming wider.
I welcome a DJT vs Ocasio-Cortez/Bernie choice (whether or not she heads the ticket).
I believe that increases my party’s chances. However if the left wins, I will not abandon my principles but will join the “opposition” (not “resistance”) party.
Total nut job. And oil is abiotic BTW.
Huh. So I guess billionaire-on-paper Musk, billionaire for real Pickens, and multimillionaire Gore are dependent on the continuation of climate change? Okay.
Indeed they are, they’ve made millions off of their demagoguery of AGW. Gore more so than the other two.
Thank the Founders for Federalism. Pockets of socialism like this are always interesting and entertaining. They are useful in allowing everyone to experience and see what socialists are and what they stand for.
Climate Change is only a means to an end for these people.
It seems that every new generation needs to be inoculated anew against the siren call of socialism, ie free stuff.
flash in the pan.
What is spooky is that lots of folks had to vote for this person for her to win. I guess ignorance and nonsense is even more rampant than even I thought it was and that’s a stretch. NY, NJ, most of New England, and all of the west coast I guess have no concept of history. The failed USSR, Venezuela, Cuba and all of the other worker’s paradises? But then look how good they have it in communist China, not. Of course they are more faciast now or some kind of crony capitalists with a one party system and apparently now a dictator.
Low turnout.
You can fool some of the people all of the time, especially in the NY city buroughs/barrios, Seattle, LA, and San Francisco!
Exactly what we need in this Republic, another committed Marxist to lead us into poverty.
The Democrat Party is increasingly becoming dependent on mental greentardation to support its existence… This is far more dangerous to liberty and prosperity than when they were only dependent on voter addiction to OPM (other people’s money).
Socialism, open borders, public unions, trial lawyers and identity politics is all the modern Democrat Party has to offer. It won’t be enough.
IMO the GOP might lose some House seats, due to activist court interference in elections, but it will hang on with no more than normal mid-term losses. The GOP will probably gain a few seats in Congress.
Nightmarish dashing of Communist hopes for a blue (should be red) wave of resistance against Trump.
“should be red” indeed. How did that happen?
That’s how it used to be, but the networks got together before the 2000 election and decided that they didn’t want to associate Democrats with Communists, although of course, that’s as should be.
It’s funny how Republicans simply embraced “red.” It’s just a color on a map and one of three colors on our flag.
I’ll leave it to readers’ to decide which flag I’m referring to.
Without a sensitivity to being compared to socialists, Communists or Marxists… I’m good with red. Just don’t make us pink, or rainbows or green… Well, green is OK… It’s what we color oil on well logs and maps. Green would actually be better than red. Natural gas is colored red. And… Blue is what we color water… All blue on the resistivity curve = Dry hole… How appropriate!
This is ironic, and actually counter-intuitive to me. I have to remind myself, often, that red is Republican here in the states, and isn’t a reference to communism. I guess some instincts die harder than others.
rip
Justice Kennedy just announced his retirement.
I think Trump should demand a physical examination of some of the older liberals on the bench. Just to see if they died and are being propped up until after Trump leaves office.
I sometimes enjoy playing with absurdity. Point one is constitutional law. Article 1, section 1, starts out with, all legislative powers herein granted…, blatantly states that anything not authorized for the federal government is forbidden. A green new deal is forbidden without the required amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The F.D.R. new deal was also in violation of law. The problem is that people will commit crimes regardless of law. Point two is about the “carbon-free” 100% renewable energy system. I think it can be argued that besides not using coal and petroleum because they contain carbon, for wind and solar generation, for building, shipping parts and erecting wind mills should meet the same standard. For wind mills, no carbon fiber, no Kevlar, no resins, no plastics, including nylon,, no lubricating oils and greases, no wood or other plant materials like cotton and linin , no leather and wool, and so on can not be used, because they all contain carbon. All organics and some inorganics contain carbon. The same problems can show up in various forms of solar generation. Also, in metallurgy that may be required for power lines, transformers, switch gear and breakers, poles and towers, shafts and gear boxes and gears, besides mining, refining and shipping, how does one obtain the required temperature to produce the needed metals and products? Except for metal hulls, even canoes are made of organic materials that contain carbon.
This is awesome. Being such an extreme, left wing nut job, she should do a very good job at marginalizing the Democratic vote amongst the New York electorate. Even in New York, the general population would have to see her policies as ludricrous and unworkable.
Can’t someone ask to sit with her for a national broadcast to explain, with charts, how this will be done technically and at what cost financially and company-termination-wize?
Repeatedly offer no-attack opportunity?
Leftists like her are completely innumerate.
Remember, numbers are tools of White Supremacy and the Patriarchy!
Doug,
It’s never about facts. It is always about emotions. Especially when addressing the masses.
Yes, let the young lady do an impersonation of Capt. Queeg….
As dumb as she obviously seems to be, what does this say about the many people who voted for her?
Dumbocraps.
Nodding donkeys
When will these charlatans commit to actions within their own term of office? Such a farce.
Having studies this for an hour or two, Ocasio-Cortez is a good thing and mostly good will come from this.
Moderates lefties don’t like this development.
Just reading a bunch of tweets reveals many are pissed at the uniparty for aiding and meddling in OS matters (while the USA rusts & rots) + military complex overspending and aggrandisement.
They’re saying spend the money on us.
They want more free stuff and feel good enviro initiatives for everyone (except big business and big politics).
Many decades of excesses by the uniparty will increasingly be answered by growing excesses of the left.
We want more Trump.
They want more welfare and climate action.
Interesting . . .
Wow! 2035? Our government is pushing a zero carbon for 2050 so this lady must be real fast! 😉
Duh! How did we get this crazy government anyway?
http://www.pce.parliament.nz/publications/a-zero-carbon-act-for-new-zealand-revisiting-stepping-stones-to-paris-and-beyond
https://rogerfromnewzealand.wordpress.com/2018/05/09/ever-been-told-that-the-science-is-settled-with-global-warming-well-read-this-and-decide-for-yourself/
Cheers
Roger
http://www.thedemiseofchristchurch.com
Wow indeed! So whatdoyathink could I opt for some free housing in New Zealand as is my natural right of course? Nothing special, mind, I’d settle for a plot in Auckland Botanical Gardens or thereabouts. Cheers back.